| Abstract: |
A burgeoning literature explores the extent to which consumption or income
inadequately reflect people's subjective wellbeing, just as GDP at times can
provide an incomplete and misleading picture of national wellbeing. Scholars
are increasingly using data on subjective wellbeing to complement traditional
welfare indicators and to enrich our understanding of wellbeing and quality of
life. The paper builds on the present research but it analyzes a much broader,
more interdisciplinary, and more policy-relevant range of potential
determinants simultaneously than currently existing in the literature on
subjective wellbeing. It first analyzes the relative importance of a wide
range of characteristics and conditions at the individual, household, regional
and macro levels on levels of subjective wellbeing in Colombia in 2010/11; and
second, assesses the marginal effects of a number of factors on perceived
changes in levels of subjective wellbeing over time for the same respondents
from 2008/09 to 2010/11. Findings show that increasing the quality of life of
Colombians is largely conditional on minimizing risks and vulnerabilities:
reducing the rate and duration of unemployment; improving the delivery of
public health services; increasing the share of people with health and pension
plans; enhancing safety and security in communities; and reducing levels of
discrimination. It finds that job loss has particularly strong effects on
levels of satisfaction that are larger than those for increased income, while
also controlling for a decrease in income that is often related to being
unemployed, suggesting that the human welfare (non-pecuniary) costs of
unemployment are driving the strong effects. Moreover, any job, even a
low-quality job, is overall better for one's subjective wellbeing than being
unemployed. Finally, policy aimed at improving people's subjective wellbeing
will likely have the greatest impact if focused on mitigating vulnerabilities
and negative shocks that people face. |