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on Economics of Happiness |
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Issue of 2026–07–20
eight papers chosen by Viviana Di Giovinazzo, Università degli Studi di Milano-Bicocca |
| By: | Corin Blanc |
| Abstract: | In response to rising urban air pollution, European cities have adopted Low Emission Zones (LEZs), restricting the most polluting vehicles. While effective in improving air quality, these policies remain controversial due to concerns over fairness and acceptability. This paper examines the impact of London’s 2021 and 2023 Ultra Low Emission Zone (ULEZ) expansions on Subjective Well-Being (SWB). Using panel data from the UK Household Longitudinal Study and a staggered difference-in-differences design with individual and year fixed effects, we compare changes in life satisfaction among residents inside and outside the affected areas. We find that the 2021 expansion led to a decline in life satisfaction by approximately 0.4 points. We explore the mechanisms driving this decline and find that the well-being loss is mediated by car dependency and transport mode availability. While the policy increased reliance on public transport, we show that a better accessibility to public transport mitigates the decline in life satisfaction among London residents. Furthermore, we show that the well-being costs of the policy are regressive, disproportionately affecting lower-income households. These findings suggest that LEZs can generate short-term and unequal well-being costs despite achieving modest behavioural change, highlighting the need for complementary measures to enhance social acceptability. |
| Keywords: | Low Emission Zones (LEZs), Air pollution, Environmental policy, Subjective well-being, Life satisfaction, Staggered Difference-in-differences, Social acceptability |
| JEL: | I31 Q52 H23 R48 |
| Date: | 2026 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:drm:wpaper:2026-14 |
| By: | Ã lvarez-Nogal, Carlos; Prados de la Escosura, Leandro |
| Abstract: | In early modern Spain, state capacity has been regarded as weak in the historical literature. In this paper, we assess the Spanish Monarchy’s ability to implement its policies through an output measure rather than an input—specifically, the distribution of the Bull of the Crusade. Furthermore, we explore how shifts in state capacity influenced subjective well-being. In a religious society like early modern Spain, spiritual satisfaction functions as a measure of subjective well-being. It was achieved by reducing the perceived time spent in Purgatory after death to atone for sins committed during life, which could be done by purchasing indulgences. Consuming the Bull of the Crusade, an affordable form of almsgiving, granted a plenary indulgence and, therefore, eliminated the need for penance in the afterlife for all sins committed prior to its purchase. Obtaining the bull reduced death anxiety and increased life satisfaction. Our measure of subjective well-being—the logarithmic ratio of bulls sold to the population, both normalised—indicates whether spiritual satisfaction was attained. Subjective well-being declined in the late 1570s and 1580s during years of severe financial crisis, in the 1640s during the Catalan Revolt, and collapsed during Spain’s War of Succession (1701-14) and its aftermath. Reductions in state capacity coincided with decreases in spiritual satisfaction, while demand for bulls remained relatively stable over time. Declines in state capacity appear to be the primary factor behind these decreases in spiritual satisfaction and, consequently, lower subjective well-being. |
| JEL: | E70 H27 I31 N33 Z12 |
| Date: | 2025–11 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cpr:ceprdp:20830 |
| By: | Wolfgang Maennig (Chair for Economic Policy, University of Hamburg); Niklas Rohde (Chair for Economic Policy, University of Hamburg) |
| Abstract: | We provide long-run regional evidence on how local support for Brexit is associated with post-referendum life satisfaction. Covering 348 UK local authorities from 2011 to 2022, we find that after the 2016 referendum higher district-level Leave vote shares are associated with relative increases in life satisfaction. These results are robust across alternative treatment definitions, dynamic specifications, regional sensitivity checks and controls for the COVID-19 pandemic. Additional analyses suggest that the association emerges immediately after the referendum, is stronger in structurally vulnerable districts, and is weaker in areas with stronger petition-based demand for reversing Brexit. The findings may be associated with a regional political “winner effect†and/or may reflect alignment between regional political preferences and the referendum outcome. |
| Keywords: | Subjective Well-being, Brexit, Referendum, Regional Science |
| JEL: | D72 I31 I38 |
| Date: | 2026–07–02 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hce:wpaper:084 |
| By: | Barbeta-Margarit, Anna; Jayachandran, Seema; Oh, Suanna |
| Abstract: | Can questions about life satisfaction be used to measure parental preferences for daughters versus sons? Daughter preference has rarely been documented in the literature, even in matrilineal settings. One possible reason is that the commonly used measures of parental gender preference, such as fertility-stopping rules and sex ratio at birth, are ill-suited to high-fertility settings. We instead assess maternal preferences in Malawi by examining the life satisfaction of women who currently have one child, comparing those with a daughter to those with a son. We find that in matrilineal (but not patrilineal) households, having a daughter increases mothers' life satisfaction, relative to having a son. |
| JEL: | I31 J13 J16 N47 O12 Z13 |
| Date: | 2026–02 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cpr:ceprdp:21130 |
| By: | Ricardo Perez-Truglia; Rafael Macedo Rubião |
| Abstract: | People often make important choices in pursuit of higher income, but do they place too much weight on income when deciding what path to take? We propose a simple model of misspecified learning in which individuals overestimate the marginal satisfaction from income—the expected effect of an income increase on overall life satisfaction—and therefore give income too much importance in their decisions. Guided by this model, we designed a pre-registered experiment that elicits beliefs about the marginal satisfaction from income and randomly assigns scientific evidence about it. Respondents substantially overestimate the marginal satisfaction from income both for themselves and for others, but especially for themselves. These biases shrink when respondents are exposed to scientific evidence, and the effects persist one month later. To study whether these beliefs matter for behavior, we measure income-versus-non-income trade-offs using job-choice scenarios tailored to each respondent and a real-world decision the respondent is facing. To elicit the latter, we make a methodological contribution: an AI-led interview method that moves beyond static, predefined survey instruments by combining the flexibility of qualitative interviewing with the discipline of closed-ended survey measurement. We find that biased beliefs are consequential: after learning that income matters less for life satisfaction than they initially thought, respondents place less weight on income in their decisions. |
| JEL: | C93 D91 I31 |
| Date: | 2026–07 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:35423 |
| By: | Drakopoulos, Stavros A.; Katselidis, Ioannis |
| Abstract: | This work discusses the role of psychology in the Post War II non-mainstream economics tradition, focusing on George Katona, Harvey Leibenstein and Tibor Scitovsky. Although those three authors were largely ignored by orthodox economists, they exercised a considerable influence on heterodox schools and helped to establish the foundations of behavioural economics and of the economics of happiness. Katona started a research programme at the Survey Research Center of the University of Michigan, which was openly based on the economic psychology of the attitudes and motives underlying market behaviour. Initially, he focused on the psychological aspects of business behaviour in order to explore the motives and attitudes of businessmen. Subsequently, Katona’s studies were centred on the psychological aspects of consumption, suggesting the use of interview surveys to obtain both financial and attitudinal data of consumers. Leibenstein is considered to be one of the first economists to explore issues pertaining to what is called today behavioural economics. Anticipating modern or new behavioural economics, Leibenstein incorporated the psychological dimensions of economic behaviour into his microeconomic approach long before the emergence of behavioral economics as a distinct discipline. Scitovsky was among the first economists to detect a new-found interest in the determinants of well-being and in its underlying processes in psychological research, and to show how economics could be enriched by applying the new psychological insights. All three were clearly against the purging of psychology from twentieth century economic theory, arguing that incorporating concepts and findings from psychology into economics was methodologically legitimate and theoretically fruitful. The paper will also discuss their critical attitude towards the standard model of economic rationality and the mainstream methodological framework. Further, it will investigate key common points of these authors, including their emphasis on the role of interdependent preferences. |
| Keywords: | History of Heterodox Economics; Relation between Economics and Psychology; History of Old Behavioral Economics; History of Happiness Economics |
| JEL: | A12 B2 B3 B4 B50 |
| Date: | 2026–06 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:129729 |
| By: | Luiu, Carlo; Wandera, Amos; Bukachi, Vera; Day, Rosie |
| Abstract: | Despite significant discussions on transport inequalities in African cities, older people's mobility needs remain under-researched. To gain a deeper understanding of such issues, this study focuses on older people living in Kenyan informal settlements and uses the capability approach to investigate their options for mobility, activities and locations, barriers, coping strategies and unfulfilled mobility needs. The study employs a qualitative approach comprising four focus groups with 24 participants and a follow-on community engagement workshop with people aged above 50 years old living in the informal settlement of Kibera in Nairobi. The results indicate that older people face significant challenges in their everyday mobility. Living with poor health conditions, level of poverty, lack and poor quality of walking infrastructure, personal safety and ageist behaviour are the main factors shaping and affecting their mobility. The capability approach offers a framework to understand older people’s mobility practices and implications for wellbeing. It enables an analysis of how mobility is shaped by their needs, constraints and decision-making processes, and how this translates into participation in life. It also offers an exploration of how mobility enables and supports a wider capability set, outlining its multidimensional social impacts. |
| Date: | 2026–06–15 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:osf:socarx:fkh7z_v1 |
| By: | Akar, Betul (TUBITAK); Okten, Cagla (Bilkent University) |
| Abstract: | This paper examines the intergenerational effects of Turkiye’s 1997 compulsory schooling reform, which increased mandatory schooling from five to eight years. Drawing on a novel dataset from the nationally representative 2022 Turkish Child Survey, we use a regression discontinuity design (RDD) to identify the causal effect of mothers’ exposure to the reform. We find that the reform significantly increased maternal educational attainment and, in turn, improved children’s performance in Turkish, while having no statistically significant effect on mathematics achievement. Maternal exposure to the reform also had positive effects on children’s mental health, increasing happiness and reducing anxiety, but did not affect their general health status. These effects are heterogeneous by child gender, with boys benefiting more than girls. Analysis of potential channels shows that increased parental investment may be one relevant channel explaining the observed effects, while reduced child work appears to play a limited role. |
| Keywords: | mother’s education, compulsory schooling, child outcomes, mental health, physical health |
| JEL: | I21 I24 J13 J24 |
| Date: | 2026–06 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp18735 |