Hammond, Peter J., 1945-, Liberini, Federica and Proto, Eugenio (2011) Individual welfare and subjective well-being : commentary inspired by Sacks, Stevenson and Wolfers. Working Paper. Coventry: University of Warwick. Dept. of Economics. (Warwick economics research paper series (TWERPS), Vol.2011).

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Abstract

Sacks, Stevenson and Wolfers (2010) question earlier results like Easterlin's showing that long-run economic growth often fails to improve individuals' average reports of their own subjective well-being (SWB). We use World Values Survey data to establish that the proportion of individuals reporting happiness level h, and whose income falls below any fixed threshold, always diminishes as h increases. The implied positive association between income and reported happiness suggests that it is possible in principle to construct multi-dimensional summary statistics based on reported SWB that could be used to evaluate economic policy.

Item Type:	Working or Discussion Paper (Working Paper)
Subjects:	H Social Sciences > HB Economic Theory H Social Sciences > HM Sociology
Divisions:	Faculty of Social Sciences > Economics
Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH):	Economic development -- Psychological aspects, Income -- Psychological aspects, Well-being, Happiness
Series Name:	Warwick economics research paper series (TWERPS)
Publisher:	University of Warwick. Dept. of Economics
Place of Publication:	Coventry
Date:	2011
Volume:	Vol.2011
Number:	No.957
Status:	Not Peer Reviewed
Publication Status:	Published
Access rights to Published version:	Open Access
Funder:	European Commission (EC)
Grant number:	MEXC-CT-2006-041121 (EC)
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URI:	http://wrap.warwick.ac.uk/id/eprint/41102

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