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on Economics of Happiness |
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Issue of 2021‒03‒15
three papers chosen by |
| By: | Nudrat Faria Shreya |
| Abstract: | The recent collapse of several microfinance sectors as well as the current COVID-19 pandemic has given rise to a growing concern about the risk of multiple borrowing among microcredit clients in developing countries. Researchers argue that availability of multiple sources of credit has tempted clients to take multiple loans simultaneously, and subsequently default on loans. However, there is little empirical evidence on the impact of multiple borrowing on welfare. Using a spatial fuzzy regression discontinuity design, in this paper I empirically study the impact of an additional source of credit on outstanding and delinquent debt and monthly income by comparing individuals with access to two sources of credit with individuals with access to a single source of credit. In addition, I find that access to an additional source of credit leads to a reduction in a borrower’s outstanding debt by USD 44.75 and a decline in number of outstanding loans by 0.07. However, an additional source of credit has no effect on delinquent debt or monthly income of borrowers. In addition, I provide evidence of no effect of outstanding debt on psychosocial wellbeing of borrowers in terms of their happiness, life satisfaction, financial satisfaction and health satisfaction. |
| Keywords: | microfinance; multiple borrowing; indebtedness; outstanding debt; psychosocial wellbeing; regression discontinuity design |
| JEL: | G21 G51 I31 |
| Date: | 2021–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ukc:ukcedp:2103&r=all |
| By: | Alessandro Bucciol (Department of Economics (University of Verona)); Giovanni Burro (Bocconi University) |
| Abstract: | Is there a happiness premium for working in the public sector? We explore this question using a large sample of Italian employees from 2004 to 2016. We find that happiness increases with economic status. Public employees enjoy a happiness premium compared to private employees, but only if they are of low economic status. Depending on the definition of economic status, their happiness gain is able to compensate half or all the gap these individuals face with respect to private employees of medium economic status. Our findings add to the relatively scant empirical literature on psychological well-being and public employment. |
| Keywords: | Happiness, Public employment, Economic status, Wellbeing |
| JEL: | D90 I31 Z13 |
| Date: | 2021–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ver:wpaper:05/2021&r=all |
| By: | Marie Blaise; Laetitia Dillenseger |
| Abstract: | The impact of informal care provision on life satisfaction remains an unsolved puzzle: because of reverse causality and time-varying unobserved variable biases, simple cross-sectional estimations or fixed-effect models may provide unclear picture of the causal relation between the informal care supply and life satisfaction. Using panel data from the Longitudinal Internet Studies for the Social Sciences (LISS) for the Netherlands over the period 2009-2018, we first estimate a simple OrdinaryLeast-Square (OLS) model with fixed-effect analysing the impact of informal care on caregivers’ life satisfaction. We then use an Arellano-Bond system Generalized-Method-of-Moments (GMM) model to address endogeneity issues. We find that taking into account an endogeneity bias slightly increases the negative impact of providing informal care on life satisfaction compared with an OLS with fixed-effects approach. Additionally, the detrimental effect of providing care is larger for women, individuals being in co-habitation with children, and unemployed individuals. Among caregivers, providing support to someone living in the same household or being a family caregiver has a stronger negative impact on life satisfaction. |
| Keywords: | Informal care; satisfaction; happiness; generalized method of moments; the Netherlands. |
| JEL: | D10 I10 I31 |
| Date: | 2020 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ulp:sbbeta:2020-55&r=all |