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on Economics of Happiness |
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Issue of 2026–01–19
five papers chosen by Viviana Di Giovinazzo, Università degli Studi di Milano-Bicocca |
| By: | Mohamed Chaouch; Thanasis Stengos |
| Abstract: | This paper investigates the nexus between subjective well-being and sustainability, proxied by the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) Index, using cross-country data from 126 nations in 2022. While prior research has highlighted a positive association between happiness and sustainable development, existing approaches largely rely on linear regressions or correlation-based measures that mask distributional heterogeneity, multicollinearity, and potential nonlinear dependence. To address these limitations, we employ a two methodological framework combining Graphical Lasso, and Quantile-on-Quantile Regression (QQR). The Graphical Lasso identifies a direct conditional link between happiness and sustainability after controlling for governance, income, and life expectancy, with a partial correlation of about 0.21. On the other hand, QQR reveals heterogeneous effects across the joint distribution: sustainability gains are positively associated with happiness for low-happiness but high-sustainability countries, negatively associated in high-happiness but low-sustainability contexts, and essentially neutral elsewhere. These findings suggest that the happiness-sustainability link is modest, asymmetric, and context-dependent, underscoring the importance of moving beyond mean-based regressions. From a policy perspective, our results highlight that institutional quality, income, and demographic factors remain the dominant drivers of both happiness and sustainability, while the interplay between the two dimensions is most pronounced in distributional extremes. |
| Date: | 2025–12 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:arx:papers:2512.12352 |
| By: | Cortés-Satué, Sara |
| Abstract: | Teleworking is an increasingly widespread practice, which has led to permanent changes in labour markets around the world. In France, as well as in other European countries, there are specific regulations to ensure equal rights between remote and on-site workers. The study aims to analyze the impact of teleworking on three dimensions associated with worker well-being: subjective well-being, depression and work-life balance, in the specific case of France. By introducing sociodemographic and occupational controls into the regressions, the results show that teleworking has no statistically significant effects, whereas variables such as gender, parenthood and place of residence, among others, do. |
| Keywords: | telework; wellbeing; depression; satisfaction; work-life balance |
| JEL: | D00 |
| Date: | 2026–01–10 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:127687 |
| By: | Kausik Chaudhuri; Alan Piper |
| Abstract: | The empirical literature on the relationship between age and well-being is characterised by an unusually persistent series of disagreements over data, method, and interpretation. Previous attempts to advance the discussion have involved different scholars’ specific prescriptions, which were often in near total contradiction to other scholars’ attempts to do the same. Instead, we use specification curve analysis to provide a structured and transparent resolution to these disputes. This also helps to illuminate the sensitivity of findings to key analytical decisions. With twenty-five years of panel data from the UK and Germany, we show that most of the specifications are consistent with a turning point for wellbeing in midlife, with a decline to that point and increase thereafter. The consistency of the finding renders some of the previous debate moot. Furthermore, this robust result is supportive of much theoretical discussion from different disciplines and areas of enquiry. |
| Keywords: | Age, Ageing, lifespan development, wellbeing |
| JEL: | I30 |
| Date: | 2025 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:diw:diwsop:diw_sp1235 |
| By: | Anukriti, S.; Herrera Almanza, Catalina; Hossain, Shahadat; Karra, Mahesh |
| Abstract: | We document the relationship between son preference and women’s mental health and well-being using data on mothers-in-law and their co-resident daughters-in-law from rural India. We leverage exogenous variation in the sex of the daughter-in-law’s firstborn child to analyze the effect of a firstborn (grand)son on the (grand)mother’s mental health and the relationship between the mother-in-law and the daughter-in-law. Mothers-in-law with firstborn grandsons experience an 18 percent reduction in the risk of anxiety or depression compared to mothers-in-law with firstborn granddaughters. We find no impact of a firstborn son on daughter-in-law mental health. The birth of a grandson also increases mother-in-law approval of her daughter-in-law working outside the home and using family planning, as well as the daughter-in-law’s labor force participation and modern contraceptive use. Our findings highlight the costs of gender-biased norms and the need for interventions that jointly address gender equity and mental wellness to improve women’s well-being. |
| Keywords: | International Development |
| Date: | 2025 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:aaea25:360992 |
| By: | Eizaguerri Floris, Maria |
| Abstract: | Resumen Este trabajo analiza los efectos del teletrabajo sobre el bienestar subjetivo, la depresión y el equilibrio vida trabajo de los empleados suecos en 2021. Con microdatos representativos del EWCTS y una muestra de 1281 individuos, se estiman modelos OLS, logit y logit ordenado que relacionan la intensidad del teletrabajo (ninguno, parcial, completo) con los tres resultados, controlando por características individuales, del hogar, del empleo y por la tele trabajabilidad del puesto. Los resultados muestran que el teletrabajo no altera de forma significativa el bienestar medio, pero el teletrabajo completo mejora claramente el equilibrio vida trabajo y, a la vez, los jóvenes teletrabajadores presentan mayor probabilidad de síntomas depresivos que sus homólogos presenciales. En un contexto sueco de teletrabajo híbrido ya normalizado, el impacto agregado sobre el bienestar es neutro, pero el diseño concreto del teletrabajo resulta clave para evitar nuevos focos de vulnerabilidad psicológica. Abstract This paper studies the effects of telework on subjective well being, depression and work–life balance among Swedish employees in 2021. Using representative EWCTS microdata and a sample of 1, 281 individuals, we estimate weighted OLS, logit and ordered logit models linking telework intensity (none, partial, fulltime) to these three outcomes, controlling for individual, household and job characteristics and for job tele workability. Results show that telework does not significantly affect average well being, while full time telework clearly improves work–life balance and, at the same time, young teleworkers are more likely to report depressive symptoms than comparable non teleworkers. In Sweden’s already normalized hybrid telework regime, the aggregate impact on well being appears neutral, but the specific design and conditions of telework are crucial to prevent new pockets of psychological vulnerability. |
| Keywords: | Palabras clave: teletrabajo, depresión, bienestar, balance vida-trabajo, logit, Suecia.; telework, depression, wellbeing, work-life balance, logit, Sweden. |
| JEL: | J22 J28 O52 |
| Date: | 2026–01–10 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:127673 |