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on Economics of Happiness |
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Issue of 2024‒11‒04
five papers chosen by Viviana Di Giovinazzo, Università degli Studi di Milano-Bicocca |
| By: | Van Loon Veerle;; Koen Decancq; |
| Abstract: | Well-being comparisons of older people are at the heart of many aging and social policies. This study introduces the ‘Well-Being at Older Age’ (Well-BOA) instrument, a new tool that allows policymakers to compare well-being across older people while respecting their preferences regarding the relative importance of six well- being dimensions: health, social relations, income, leisure, engagement, and religion. The Well-BOA instrument was validated through an online factorial survey experiment among individuals aged 50 years and older in the Flemish Region of Belgium. The results reveal that health, social relations, and income are crucial to older people’s well-being. Lower well-being was found among those with limited education and residing in larger households and the unemployed, single, and childless. The Well-BOA instrument had stronger associations with factors such as disability and financial difficulties than a subject measure based on life satisfaction and objective measurement that treats the six well-being dimensions as equally important. These differences underscore the implications of the choice of well-being. measure for policy design and evaluation |
| Date: | 2024–09 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hdl:wpaper:2404 |
| By: | Marcin Rzeszutek (Faculty of Psychology [Warsaw] - UW - University of Warsaw); Jørgen Vitting Andersen (UP1 - Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne, CES - Centre d'économie de la Sorbonne - UP1 - Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique); Adam Szyszka; Szymon Talaga (The Robert B. Zajonc Institute for Social Studies - UW - University of Warsaw) |
| Abstract: | This study aimed to connect the behavioral corporate finance perspective (micro level) with complexity theory via agent-based modeling to analyze the impact of selected psychological factors of chief executive officers (CEOs) on stock market volatility (macro level). Specifically, we wanted to explore whether Polish CEOs' subjective well-being (SWB) influenced their managerial decisions during the COVID-19 pandemic and how it might be related to the volatility of stock prices during this critical period in Poland. Our study was based on a survey of Polish CEOs who managed companies listed on the Warsaw Stock Exchange. In particular, 255 CEOs completed the Satisfaction with Life Scale, the Positive and Negative Affect Scale, and a business survey on the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on company management. Using the results of this survey, we built an agent-based model to investigate how CEOs' decision-making, stemming from their SWB levels, influences the perception of prices by individual traders and, in turn, how it is translated into aggregate stock market volatility. The results indicate the pathways through which the microscopic-level SWB of CEOs influences market price formation at a macroscopic level. The findings obtained from our model may shed new light on the rational expectations theory applied to stock market volatility during the financial crisis. |
| Keywords: | Subjective well-being, CEO, COVID-19, Stock market volatility, Rational expectations theory, Agent-based model |
| Date: | 2024 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:cesptp:hal-04723512 |
| By: | Jake Anders (UCL Centre for Education Policy & Equalising Opportunities); Erica Holt-White (The Sutton Trust) |
| Abstract: | The COVID-19 pandemic and the disruption it has caused had substantial short-term effects on young people. These effects have been found to be highly unequal, exacerbating existing inequalities in society, including those associated with socio-economic status, gender and ethnicity. But, just as importantly, it is believed that they continue to cast a long shadow over some young people's lives. In this paper we use data from the COVID Social Mobility & Opportunities study (COSMO) --- a representative cohort study of over 13, 000 young people in England aged 14-15 at pandemic onset whose education and post-16 transitions were acutely affected by the pandemic's disruption through their remaining education and subsequent transitions --- to highlight ongoing inequalities in young people's subjective wellbeing and mental health in the wake of the pandemic. We document the substantial differences in subjective wellbeing --- especially highlighting differences by gender --- after adjusting for other demographic characteristics, self-reported levels of social support, and experience of adverse life events. We estimate how wellbeing differs by young people's own perceptions of the ongoing impact of the pandemic: those who indicate an ongoing negative impact in their lives have substantially lower subjective wellbeing scores. Finally, we find a link between adverse life experiences during the pandemic and lower post-pandemic wellbeing, but do not find evidence that this is mediated by demographic characteristics or social support. |
| Keywords: | COVID-19; young people; subjective wellbeing; inequalities; adverse life events; social support |
| JEL: | I14 I24 I31 |
| Date: | 2024–10 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ucl:cepeow:24-05 |
| By: | Pirla, Sergio; Ortega-Lapiedra, Raquel |
| Abstract: | Individuals not only seek a happy and meaningful life, but an interesting one. In this letter, we show that past estimates of the well-being gains from entrepreneurship have overlooked an important aspect of the relationship between self-employment and well-being: boredom. Using a sample of over 30, 000 individuals from 25 European countries, we show that self-employment is related to lower levels of boredom – a relationship that is not captured by traditional measures of hedonic or eudaimonic well-being. |
| Keywords: | Boredom, Entrepreneurship |
| JEL: | L26 M5 |
| Date: | 2024–10–04 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:122278 |
| By: | Chiara Costi; Andrew Clark; Conchita D'Ambrosio; Anthony Lepinteur; Giorgia Menta |
| Abstract: | We here exploit an exogenous shift in working conditions for public-sector workers in Italy to establish the causal effect of a return-to-office (RTO) mandate on worker health and well-being. In nine waves of quarterly panel data we first find a significant fall in teleworking for those affected by the RTO mandate, who also spend more time outdoors, work fewer hours, and interact less with relatives and friends. The net effect of these lifestyle changes on a battery of health and well-being measures following the return to office work is insignificant. The place of work post-pandemic has neither positive nor negative health implications. |
| Keywords: | Return to office; Working from home; Health; Well-being |
| JEL: | I18 I31 J88 |
| Date: | 2024–10 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:irs:cepswp:2024-07 |