nep-hap 2023-04-03 papers

on Economics of Happiness

Issue of 2023‒04‒03
two papers chosen by

Measuring well-being and lives worth living By Marc Fleurbaey; Grégory Ponthière
Promising Happiness in Advertising in Light of International Standardization: Religiosity and Religious Priming Overshadow Cross-Cultural Factors By Jamel Khenfer

Measuring well-being and lives worth living

By:	Marc Fleurbaey (PSE - Paris School of Economics - UP1 - Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne - ENS-PSL - École normale supérieure - Paris - PSL - Université Paris sciences et lettres - EHESS - École des hautes études en sciences sociales - ENPC - École des Ponts ParisTech - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique - INRAE - Institut National de Recherche pour l’Agriculture, l’Alimentation et l’Environnement); Grégory Ponthière (UCL - Université Catholique de Louvain = Catholic University of Louvain)
Abstract:	We study the measurement of well-being when individuals have heterogeneous preferences, including different conceptions of a life worth living. When individuals differ in the conception of a life worth living, the equivalent income can regard an individual whose life is not worth living as being better off than an individual whose life is worth living. In order to avoid this paradoxical result, we reexamine the ethical foundations of well-being measures in such a way as to take into account heterogeneity in the conception of a life worth living. We derive, from simple axioms, an alternative measure of well-being, which is an equivalent income net of the income threshold making lifetime neutral. That new well-being index always ranks an individual whose life is not worth living as worse-off than an individual with a life worth living.
Keywords:	Measurement, Equivalent income, Lifetime, Value of life, Well-being
Date:	2022–07–14
URL:	http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:journl:halshs-03760490&r=hap

Promising Happiness in Advertising in Light of International Standardization: Religiosity and Religious Priming Overshadow Cross-Cultural Factors

By:	Jamel Khenfer (Excelia Group \| La Rochelle Business School)
Abstract:	Advertising campaigns that explicitly claim that the advertised product can bring about happiness in the consumer's life are often standardized across national markets. While the notion that most people—if not everyone on the planet—want to be happy and might respond favorably to calls for happiness seems intuitive, the literature offers little to no evidence to support this common managerial practice. Through two studies conducted in cultural settings as different as the United Arab Emirates and the United States, this research shows that cross-cultural factors matter less than personal and situational factors such as religiosity and religious priming, respectively. Specifically, the author found that lower (higher) religiosity levels led to worse (better) ratings for happiness-based ( vs. control) claims. Moreover, exposure to religious cues flipped the relationship between higher religiosity levels and liking for ads featuring happiness-based claims because of altered perceptions of the brand's control over the claim. This research sheds light on the interactive role of religiosity and religious priming on consumer response to standardized secular advertising.
Keywords:	Advertising, Cross-cultural, Happiness, Religiosity, Religious priming
Date:	2023–01–18
URL:	http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:journl:hal-03950332&r=hap

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