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on Economics of Happiness |
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Issue of 2011‒09‒16
four papers chosen by |
| By: | Anna Baranowska; Anna Matysiak (Institute of Statistics and Demography, Warsaw School of Economics) |
| Abstract: | In the recent decade demographers turned their attention to investigating the effects of children on self-rated happiness or life satisfaction. The underlying idea of this strand of research is to find out whether it pays off to individuals to become parents in terms of their subjective wellbeing, given the costs of having children. This paper follows this line of research and studies the impacts of childbearing on individual-level happiness in Poland; a country which experienced a rapid decline in fertility despite particularly strong attachment of young Poles to family values. To this end, we applied methods for panel data analysis which allowed us to control for endogeneity of subjective well-being and parenthood. Our results reveal a significantly positive effect of the first child on the subjective well-being of mothers. For men, this impact is weaker and most likely temporary since it weakens with an increase in child’s age. Importantly, neither for men nor for women does the positive impact of parenthood rise with an increase in parity. This may explain persistence of low fertility in this country. |
| Keywords: | happiness , life satisfaction, fertility, childbearing, parenthood |
| JEL: | J13 J17 |
| Date: | 2011 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:isd:wpaper:38&r=hap |
| By: | Xavier Fontaine (EEP-PSE - Ecole d'Économie de Paris - Paris School of Economics - Ecole d'Économie de Paris, PSE - Paris-Jourdan Sciences Economiques - CNRS : UMR8545 - Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales (EHESS) - Ecole des Ponts ParisTech - Ecole Normale Supérieure de Paris - ENS Paris - INRA); Katsunori Yamada (ISER - Institute of Social and Economic Research - Osaka University) |
| Abstract: | This paper exploits a unique micro-level survey to investigate the relationship between subjective well-being and reference consumption in urban Indian. Using accurate computations of individuals' reference consumption, we find that other's consumption has a positive impact on subjective well-being. This result validates Hirschman's view that information dominates envy in rapidly developing areas. Whereas envy seems to undermine the well-being impact of growth in economically-established countries, growth appears to have an important role in urban Indian. Our finding is robust to the way we define the reference level of consumption. |
| Keywords: | Subjective Well-being; India; Relative utility; Tunnel effects |
| Date: | 2011–08–25 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:psewpa:hal-00616993&r=hap |
| By: | Lars Osberg; Andrew Sharpe |
| Abstract: | This report presents new estimates of the Index of Economic Well-being (IEWB) and its four domains (consumption flows, stocks of wealth, economic equality, and economic security) for 14 OECD countries for the 1980-2009 period. It finds that in 2009 Norway had the highest level of economic well-being and Spain the lowest. Canada ranked ninth among the fourteen countries. Over the 1980-2009 period Denmark enjoyed the most rapid increase in economic well-being, and the Netherlands the slowest. In all 14 countries rate of advance of the IEWB was less than that of GDP per capita. Economic well-being, therefore, has not advanced as rapidly as GDP per capita. |
| Keywords: | well-being, economic measurement, IEWB, consumption, wealth, equality, economic security |
| JEL: | E01 I31 E21 E24 |
| Date: | 2011–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:sls:resrep:1112&r=hap |
| By: | Lars Osberg; Andrew Sharpe |
| Abstract: | This report presents new estimates of the Index of Economic Well-being (IEWB) and its four domains (consumption flows, stocks of wealth, economic equality and economic security) for Canada and the provinces for the 1981-2010 period. It finds that the IEWB advanced at a 0.78 per cent average annual growth rate over the period, below the 1.32 per cent growth for GDP per capita. Both the consumption and wealth domains experienced solid advances over the period, but these developments were offset by declines in the equality and economic security domains. The recent recession caused a decline in the IEWB for Canada, driven by declines in wealth and economic security. |
| Keywords: | well-being, economic measurement, IEWB, consumption, wealth, equality, economic security |
| JEL: | E01 I31 E21 E24 |
| Date: | 2011–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:sls:resrep:1111&r=hap |