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on Economics of Happiness |
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Issue of 2015‒01‒26
eight papers chosen by |
| By: | Drakopoulos, Stavros A.; Grimani, Katerina |
| Abstract: | One of the main economic outcomes of the recent great recession was the decrease of labour earnings in many countries. The relevant literature indicates that earnings and other socioeconomic predictors can influence psychological well-being. The same holds true for job satisfaction. This chapter tests the effect of pay cuts on the psychological well-being and job satisfaction. The data used in this chapter was drawn from the 5th European Survey on Working Conditions which focuses on European countries. The methodological tools for analyzing the data are the ordinary least-squares (OLS) regression, the Probit regression, and the marginal effects method. The results point to a negative statistical significant effect of pay cuts (decrease labour earnings) on psychological well-being. The results also indicate that pay cuts have a negative statistical significant impact on job satisfaction. |
| Keywords: | Pay cuts, job satisfaction, psychological well-being |
| JEL: | I31 J30 |
| Date: | 2015–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:61195&r=hap |
| By: | Cissé, Aboubakar Sidiki |
| Abstract: | The challenges of sustainable development are well known: the full enjoyment of the earth's resources without compromising the welfare of future generations. It is to reconcile the three pillars on which the concept is based, namely: economic, social and environmental. Beyond that called sustainable development, the United Nations, in collaboration with other international organizations over the last ten years developing a new concept: the concept of green economy which is defined as "an economy that leads to improvement of human well-being and social equity, while significantly reducing environmental risks and the lack of resources". In this paper, we support the idea that economic development policies should include the issue of the green economy represents a real opportunity for development and containment of poverty in the world in general and in Africa in particular. |
| Keywords: | Classification JEL : Q01 ; Q32 ; Q56 |
| JEL: | Q01 Q32 Q56 |
| Date: | 2013–11–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:53829&r=hap |
| By: | Staelens, Lotte; Louche, Céline; D’Haese, Marijke |
| Abstract: | This paper analyses the determinants of job satisfaction in the cut flower industry in Ethiopia. Using primary survey data of 358 workers and focus groups conducted in 5 similar farms, we find that organizational extrinsic rewards are the main determinants of job satisfaction. Intrinsic and social extrinsic rewards however, appear to have little predictive power. Moreover our findings suggest that there are no gender differences in levels and predictors of job satisfaction, however we do find educational differences and explain why. To end, we discuss the implications of this study along with limitations and suggestions for future research. |
| Keywords: | job satisfaction, labor, cut flower industry, Ethiopia, Africa, Labor and Human Capital, |
| Date: | 2014–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:eaae14:182815&r=hap |
| By: | Semih Tumen; Tugba Zeydanli |
| Abstract: | The literature documents that job satisfaction is positively correlated with worker performance and pro- ductivity. We examine whether aggregate job satisfaction in a certain labor market environment can have an impact on individual-level job satisfaction. If the answer is yes, then policies targeted to increase job satisfaction can increase productivity not only directly, but through spillover externalities too. We seek an answer to this question using two different data sets from the United Kingdom characterizing two different labor market environments: Workplace Employment Relations Survey (WERS) at the workplace level (i.e., narrowly defined worker groups) and British Household Panel Survey (BHPS) at the local labor market level (i.e., larger worker groups defined in industry x region cells). Implementing an original empirical strategy to identify spillover effects, we find that one standard deviation increase in aggregate job satisfac- tion leads to a 0.42 standard deviation increase in individual-level job satisfaction at the workplace level and 0.15 standard deviation increase in individual-level job satisfaction at the local labor market level. These social interactions effects are sizable and should not be ignored in assessing the effectiveness of the policies designed to improve job satisfaction. |
| Keywords: | Job satisfaction; social interactions; spillovers; hierarchical model; WERS; BHPS. |
| JEL: | C31 D62 J28 |
| Date: | 2015 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cca:wpaper:378&r=hap |
| By: | Moscone, Francesco; Tosetti, Elisa; Vittadini, Giorgio |
| Abstract: | In this paper, we investigate the impact of precarious employment on mental health using a unique dataset that matches information on mental health with labour characteristics for a set of employees in Italy. We examine the causal effect of temporary contracts, their duration and the number of contract changes during the year on psychotropic medication prescription. To this end, we estimate a dynamic probit model, and deal with the potential endogeneity of regressors by adopting a control function approach, recently advanced by Wooldridge (2014). Our results show that the probability of psychotropic medication prescription is higher for workers under temporary job contracts. More days of work under temporary contract as well as more changes in temporary contracts significantly increase the probability of being depressed. We also find that moving from permanent to temporary contracts increases depression; symmetrically, although with a smaller effect in absolute value, moving from temporary to permanent contracts tends to reduce it. An exploratory data analysis corroborates the hypothesis that depression developed after a movement to precarious employment may permanently affect future job trajectories. One lesson to learn from our empirical work is that policies aimed at enhancing the flexibility of the labour market to boost firms' competitiveness, if increasing the precariousness of employment, may also produce sides effects on the wellbeing and mental health of employees, ultimately having consequences on firms' productivity and health care costs. |
| Keywords: | Precarious employment, mental health, prescriptions. |
| JEL: | I1 I11 J0 |
| Date: | 2015 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:61405&r=hap |
| By: | Afanasyev, Sergey |
| Abstract: | The analysis of meditation as a factor of an individual’s psychological and emotional well-being as well as the comparison of main emotional intelligence quantitative measurement methods and the justification of the method used in the study were performed. Main features of the migrants’ social-psychological adaptation were considered. The key role of interpersonal emotional intelligence competency in migrants’ social-psychological adaptation process was identified. The interrelation between meditation practice and dynamics of migrants’ emotional intelligence was found. |
| Keywords: | social – psychological adaptation, migrants, emotional intelligence, meditation, improvement, transcendental meditation, mindfulness meditation. |
| JEL: | J15 |
| Date: | 2014–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:61472&r=hap |
| By: | Raquel Fonseca; Arie Kapteyn; Jinkook Lee; Gema Zamarro |
| Abstract: | Continued improvements in life expectancy and fiscal insolvency of public pensions have led to an increase in pension entitlement ages in several countries, but its consequences for subjective well-being are largely unknown. Financial consequences of retirement complicate the estimation of effects of retirement on subjective well-being as financial circumstances may influence subjective well-being, and therefore, the effects of retirement are likely to be confounded by the change in income. At the same time, unobservable determinants of income are probably related with unobservable determinants of subjective wellbeing, making income possibly endogenous if used as control in subjective wellbeing regressions. To address these issues, we estimate a simultaneous model of retirement, income, and subjective well-being while accounting for time effects and unobserved individual effects. Public pension arrangements (replacement rates, eligibility ru les for early and full retirement) serve as instrumental variables. We use data from HRS and SHARE for the period 2004-2010. We find that depressive symptoms are negatively related to retirement while life satisfaction is positively related. Remarkably, i ncome does not seem to have a significant effect on depression or life satisfaction. This is in contrast with the correlations in the raw data that show significant relations between income and depression and life satisfaction. This suggests that accounting for the endogeneity of income in equations explaining depression or life satisfaction is important. |
| Keywords: | Well-being, retirement, institutions, simultaneous equation approach |
| JEL: | I3 J26 |
| Date: | 2014 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:lvl:criacr:1409&r=hap |
| By: | Rolf Aaberge; Andrea Brandolini (Statistics Norway) |
| Abstract: | This paper examines different approaches to the measurement of multidimensional inequality and poverty. First, it outlines three aspects preliminary to any multidimensional study: the selection of the relevant dimensions; the indicators used to measure them; and the procedures for their weighting. It then considers the counting approach and the axiomatic treatment in poverty measurement. Finally, it reviews the axiomatic approach to inequality analysis. The paper provides a selective review of a rapidly growing theoretical literature with the twofold aim of highlighting areas for future research and offering some guidance on how to use multidimensional methods in empirical and policy-oriented applications. |
| Keywords: | inequality; poverty; deprivation; multidimensional well-being; capabilities; functionings |
| JEL: | D3 D63 I30 I32 |
| Date: | 2014–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ssb:dispap:792&r=hap |