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on Unemployment, Inequality and Poverty |
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Issue of 2017‒09‒03
seven papers chosen by |
| By: | Blanchflower, David G. (Dartmouth College); Oswald, Andrew J. (University of Warwick) |
| Abstract: | Using seven recent data sets, covering 51 countries and 1.3 million randomly sampled people, the paper examines the pattern of psychological well-being from approximately age 20 to age 90. Two conceptual approaches to this issue are possible. Despite what has been argued in the literature, neither is the 'correct' one, because they measure different things. One studies raw numbers on well-being and age. This is the descriptive approach. The second studies the patterns in regression equations for well-being (that is, adjusting for other influences). This is the ceteris-paribus analytical approach. The paper applies each to large cross-sections and compares the patterns of life-satisfaction and happiness. Using the first method, there is evidence of a midlife low in five of the seven data sets. Using the second method, all seven data sets produce evidence consistent with a midlife low. The scientific explanation for the approximate U-shape currently remains unknown. |
| Keywords: | happiness, aging, well-being, GHQ, mental-health, depression, life-course |
| JEL: | I3 I31 |
| Date: | 2017–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp10958&r=ltv |
| By: | Martin Ravallion; Shaohua Chen |
| Abstract: | The paper provides new measures of global poverty that take seriously the idea of relative-income comparisons but also acknowledge a deep identification problem when the latent norms defining poverty vary systematically across countries. Welfare-consistent measures are shown to be bounded below by a fixed absolute line and above by weakly-relative lines derived from a theoretical model of relative-income comparisons calibrated to data on national poverty lines. Both bounds indicate falling global poverty incidence, but more slowly for the upper bound. Either way, the developing world has a higher poverty incidence but is making more progress against poverty than the developed world. |
| JEL: | I32 |
| Date: | 2017–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:23739&r=ltv |
| By: | Roberto Veneziani (School of Economics and Finance, Queen Mary University of London); Naoki Yoshihara (Department of Economics, University of Massachusetts Amherst) |
| Abstract: | An axiomatic analysis of the concept of unequal exchange (UE) between countries is developed in a dynamic general equilibrium model that generalises Roemer’s [22] economy with a global capital market. The class of UE definitions that satisfy three fundamental properties - including a correspondence between wealth, class and UE exploitation status - is completely characterised. It is shown that this class is nonempty and a definition of UE exploitation between countries is proposed, which is theoretically robust and firmly anchored to empirically observable data. The full class and UE exploitation structure of the international economy is derived in equilibrium. |
| Keywords: | Exploitation, Classes, Unequal exchange, International economy |
| JEL: | D63 F02 B51 |
| Date: | 2017–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:kch:wpaper:sdes-2017-10&r=ltv |
| By: | Katolik, Aleksandra (University of Warwick); Oswald, Andrew J. (University of Warwick) |
| Abstract: | The antidepressant pill is an important modern commodity. Its growing role in the world has been largely ignored by researchers in economics departments and business schools. Scholars may be unaware how many citizens and employees now take these pills. Here we review some of the social-science literature on the topic. We discuss research on the impact of advertising upon antidepressant consumption, the link between antidepressants and the human 'midlife crisis', and evidence on how antidepressants are connected to crime, suicide, and financial hardship. We argue that antidepressants will eventually have to be modelled as a new form of consumption that lies in the currently grey area between medicines and consumer goods. This topic demands scholarly and societal attention. |
| Keywords: | medications, depression, well-being, happiness |
| JEL: | I1 I12 I3 I31 |
| Date: | 2017–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp10959&r=ltv |
| By: | Mahler, Daniel Gerszon (University of Copenhagen); Ramos, Xavier (Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona) |
| Abstract: | A growing literature has tried to measure the extent to which individuals have equal opportunities to acquire income. At the same time, policy makers have doubled down on efforts to go beyond income when measuring well- being. We attempt to bridge these two areas by measuring the extent to which individuals have equal opportunities to achieve a high level of well-being. We use the German Socio-Economic Panel to measure well-being in four different ways including incomes. This makes it possible to determine if the way well-being is measured matters for identifying who the opportunity-deprived are and for tracking inequality of opportunity over time. We find that, regardless of how wellbeing is measured, the same people are opportunity-deprived and equality of opportunity has improved over the past 20 years. This suggests that going beyond income has little relevance if the objective is to provide equal opportunities. |
| Keywords: | equality of opportunity, measurement, responsibility, effort, well-being |
| JEL: | D3 D63 I31 |
| Date: | 2017–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp10940&r=ltv |
| By: | Andrew E Clark (Paris School of Economics and CNRS); Orla Doyle (UCD School of Economics & UCD Geary Institute for Public Policy); Elena Stancanelli (Paris School of Economics and CNRS) |
| Abstract: | A growing literature concludes that terrorism impacts the economy, yet less is known about its impact on utility. This paper estimates the impact of the 2013 Boston Marathon Bombing on well-being, by exploiting representative U.S. daily data. Using both a regression discontinuity and an event study design, whereby the 2012 Boston marathon serves as a counterfactual, we find a sharp reduction in well-being, equivalent to a two percentage point rise in annual unemployment. The effect is stronger for women and those living in nearby States, but does not persist beyond one week, thus demonstrating the resilience of well-being to terrorism. |
| Keywords: | Well-being, Terrorism, Regression Discontinuity Design, Differences-in-Differences |
| JEL: | I31 J21 J22 F52 |
| Date: | 2017–08–25 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ucd:wpaper:201708&r=ltv |
| By: | Sarah Flèche (Centre for Economic Performance - LSE - London School of Economics and Political Science); Warn Lekfuangfu (LSE - London School of Economics and Political Science, Chulalongkorn University (THAILAND) - Chulalongkorn University (THAILAND)); Andrew E. Clark (Centre for Economic Performance - LSE - London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE - London School of Economics and Political Science, PSE - Paris School of Economics, PJSE - Paris Jourdan Sciences Economiques - UP1 - Université Panthéon-Sorbonne - ENS Paris - École normale supérieure - Paris - INRA - Institut National de la Recherche Agronomique - EHESS - École des hautes études en sciences sociales - ENPC - École des Ponts ParisTech - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique) |
| Abstract: | To what extent do childhood experiences continue to affect adult wellbeing over the life course? Previous work on this link has been carried out either at one particular adult age or for some average of adulthood. We here use two British birth-cohort datasets (the 1958 NCDS and the 1970 BCS) to map out the time profile of the effect of childhood on adult outcomes, including life satisfaction. We find that the effect of many aspects of childhood do not fade away over time, but are rather remarkably stable. In both birth cohorts child non-cognitive skills are the strongest predictors of adult life satisfaction at all ages. Of these, emotional health is the strongest. Childhood cognitive performance is more important than good conduct in explaining adult life satisfaction in the earlier cohort, whereas this ranking is inverted in the more recent BCS. |
| Keywords: | life satisfaction,cohort data,childhood,adult outcomes |
| Date: | 2017–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:psewpa:halshs-01570057&r=ltv |