Happiness in nations is typically measured in surveys using a single question. A common question is: 'all things considered, how satisfied or dissatisfied are you with your life as-a-whole these days on a scale from 0 to 10?'. The responses typically follow a uni-modal distribution with highest frequencies between 5 and 8. Yet in some nations, the percentage of 10 responses stands out and is higher than the percentage of 9 responses. This is particularly present in Latin America and in the Middle East. In this paper we explore the prevalence of the '10-excess' pattern and check some possible explanations. We conclude that the 10-excess phenomenon is partly due to cultural influence.
The Policy Research Working Paper Series disseminates the findings of work in progress to encourage the exchange of ideas about development issues. An objective of the series is to get the findings out quickly, even if the presentations are less than fully polished. The papers carry the names of the authors and should be cited accordingly. The findings, interpretations, and conclusions expressed in this paper are entirely those of the authors. They do not necessarily represent the views of the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development/World Bank and its affiliated organizations, or those of the Executive Directors of the World Bank or the governments they represent.
Using data from the Department of Statistics Malaysia from 1987 to 2018 and decompositions that take account of both the static and dynamic efficiency gains from labor reallocation, this study documents that Malaysia has undergone structural transformation from an agriculture-driven to a services-driven economy. In contrast to common perceptions, however, the country's impressive growth in output per capita over the last three decades can largely be attributed not to its structural transformation but instead to sustained growth in within-sector labor productivity. At 3 percent, the contribution of between-sector reallocation of labor to output per capita growth has been relatively low.
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