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on Economics of Happiness |
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Issue of 2024‒02‒19
five papers chosen by |
| By: | Bellaumay, Rémy |
| Abstract: | How much do the world's inhabitants worry about the major risks they face, and how does this affect their subjective well-being? We address these questions through two global surveys: the Gallup World Poll and the World Risk Poll. We show that the experience of risk, worry and subjective well-being are inextricably linked. Climate risk is the most worrisome, followed by road risk, natural disasters, and violent crime. Unlike other risks, concern about climate change does not depend on a country's income level: people in wealthy countries say they are almost as concerned about this risk as people in poor countries, which are more affected. In addition, for the same level of risk exposure, people living in low-income countries are more resilient, that is, the experience of risk affects their subjective well-being less. Finally, the experience of one risk has a contagion effect on anxiety relating to all other risks. |
| Keywords: | Wellbeing, Migration |
| Date: | 2023–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cpm:notobe:2313b&r=hap |
| By: | Chen, Le Yu; Oparina, Ekaterina; Powdthavee, Nattavudh; Srisuma, Sorawoot |
| Abstract: | Ordered probit and logit models have been frequently used to estimate the mean ranking of happiness outcomes (and other ordinal data) across groups. However, it has been recently highlighted that such ranking may not be identified in most happiness applications. We suggest researchers focus on median comparison instead of the mean. This is because the median rank can be identified even if the mean rank is not. Furthermore, median ranks in probit and logit models can be readily estimated using standard statistical softwares. The median ranking, as well as ranking for other quantiles, can also be estimated semiparametrically and we provide a new constrained mixed integer optimization procedure for implementation. We apply it to estimate a happiness equation using General Social Survey data of the US. |
| Keywords: | median regression; mixed integer optimization; ordered-response model; quantile regression; subjective well-being |
| JEL: | C25 C61 I31 |
| Date: | 2022–08–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ehl:lserod:115556&r=hap |
| By: | Mikkel Bennedsen |
| Abstract: | In a notable instance of adversarial collaboration (Killingsworth et al., 2023), Matthew Killingsworth and Daniel Kahneman, together with facilitator Barbara Mellers, recently set out to resolve the apparent conflict between the contradictory findings that larger incomes make people happier up to a certain threshold, after which the gains to happiness from additional income plateaus (Kahneman and Deaton, 2010), and that happiness increases consistently with income without reaching a plateau (Killingsworth, 2021). The adversarial collaboration validates the former finding for the most unhappy individuals in the sample, but argues that the latter finding is true for the remaining parts of the sample. In this note, we show that this proposed "resolution" hinges on dubious assumptions, most notably that the plateau occurs at the threshold $\$$100, 000 per yer. Relaxing this assumption, and using well-established econometric methods to search for the optimal threshold in a data-driven way, we find that the happiness-income relationship does plateau, but at the threshold $\$$200, 000 per year. This finding holds regardless of the part of the happiness distribution considered. |
| Date: | 2023–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:arx:papers:2401.05347&r=hap |
| By: | Daniel Tuki (Research Fellow, WZB Berlin Social Science Center, Berlin, Germany) |
| Abstract: | Using the Wave 7 World Values Survey (WVS) dataset, this study examined the determinants of happiness among Nigerians with a focus on exposure to violent conflict, socioeconomic condition, religiosity, and self-rated health. The regression results showed that exposure to violent conflict reduced the likelihood of being happy, but socioeconomic condition and self-rated health were positively correlated with happiness. Religiosity, which was measured using the frequency of prayer, had no effect on happiness. The respondents’ demographic attributes like gender, age, and marital status also had no effect on happiness. |
| Keywords: | Happiness, Violent conflict, Heath, Poverty, Religiosity, Nigeria |
| JEL: | D74 I31 Z12 |
| Date: | 2024–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hic:wpaper:407&r=hap |
| By: | Bellaumay, Rémy |
| Abstract: | When people dream of emigration, do they want to go to a rich country or for a happy one? While on an international scale, the two often go hand in hand, the Gallup World Poll, which asks questions about emigration aspirations, shows that the two elements come into play separately: countries with greater average life satisfaction exert an attraction beyond their wealth and historical proximity to countries of origin. Plans to emigrate in the next year, more concrete than aspirations or hopes, follow a similar pattern with only some modifications due to regulatory and geographical constraints. The persistence of life satisfaction of destination countries as a predictor indicates the force of attraction of the possibility of a better life. Where people actually go may be different from the place that they hoped to go – attesting to the power of immigration barriers. Once arrived in the host country, immigrants' life satisfaction tends to be lower than that of the native-born – however, the ranking of countries is the same whether we consider the criterion of their satisfaction or that of the native-born. |
| Keywords: | Wellbeing, Migration |
| Date: | 2023–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cpm:notobe:2316b&r=hap |