Does Economic Growth Raise Happiness in China?

Knight, John; Gunatilaka, Ramani

doi:10.1080/13600818.2010.551006

Cited by 126 publications

(72 citation statements)

References 25 publications

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“…Hence we rely on the latter in this study, as is also done by other researchers (e.g. Knight and Gunatilaka, 2011). 16 There are 56 ethnicities in China where Han is the dominant ethnicity.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Subjective well-being in China, 2005–2010: The role of relative income, gender, and location

Asadullah

Xiao

Yeoh

2018

China Economic Review

123

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Standard-Nutzungsbedingungen:Die Dokumente auf EconStor dürfen zu eigenen wissenschaftlichen Zwecken und zum Privatgebrauch gespeichert und kopiert werden.Sie dürfen die Dokumente nicht für öffentliche oder kommerzielle Zwecke vervielfältigen, öffentlich ausstellen, öffentlich zugänglich machen, vertreiben oder anderweitig nutzen.Sofern die Verfasser die Dokumente unter Open-Content-Lizenzen (insbesondere CC-Lizenzen) zur Verfügung gestellt haben sollten, gelten abweichend von diesen Nutzungsbedingungen die in der dort genannten Lizenz gewährten Nutzungsrechte. The Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA) in Bonn is a local and virtual international research center and a place of communication between science, politics and business. IZA is an independent nonprofit organization supported by Deutsche Post Foundation. The center is associated with the University of Bonn and offers a stimulating research environment through its international network, workshops and conferences, data service, project support, research visits and doctoral program. IZA engages in (i) original and internationally competitive research in all fields of labor economics, (ii) development of policy concepts, and (iii) dissemination of research results and concepts to the interested public. Terms of use: Documents in D I S C U S S I O N P A P E R S E R I EIZA Discussion Papers often represent preliminary work and are circulated to encourage discussion. Citation of such a paper should account for its provisional character. A revised version may be available directly from the author. We use data from two rounds of the Chinese General Social Survey (CGSS) to study the determinants of subjective well-being in China over the period 2005-2010 during which selfreported happiness scores show an increase across all income groups. Ordered probit regression analysis of well-being reveals large influence of gender, rural residency and household income. After controlling for demographic attributes, health, unemployment status, household size, agricultural hukou (household registration identity) and education status, household assets, the influence of past and future income and province dummies, we find that women, urban residents and people with higher income are happier in China. More schooling, better health and being employed are positively and significantly correlated with well-being. Sub-sample s reveals that the rich only care about relative income whereas the effect of absolute income dominates in case of the poorer section. The influence of absolute income is larger among women compared to men and in turn explains why women, despite being poorer, are happier in China, conditional on socio-economic differences. On the other hand, rural residents are poorer than urban residents so that conditional on having the same income, there is no rural-urban happiness gap. Our results suggest that while further decline in poverty will enhance well-being in China, policies that reduce rural-urban and gender inequalities are also likely to boost well-being. JEL C...

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Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Subjective well-being in China, 2005–2010: The role of relative income, gender, and location

Asadullah

Xiao

Yeoh

2018

China Economic Review

123

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“…For reasons that are unclear, residents of capital cities are especially likely to report low levels of life satisfaction. Knight and Gunatilaka (2011) summarize their work on happiness in China, which finds that (perhaps unexpectedly) mean urban happiness is slightly below mean rural happiness, while households of rural migrants living in the cities report lower average happiness than other urban households. But the compositions of these populations may differ in terms of characteristics that are hard to observe.…”

Section: Composition Effects and Welfarementioning

confidence: 99%

Regional Growth and Regional Decline

Breinlich

Ottaviano

Temple

2014

Handbook of Economic Growth

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Since the early 1990s, there has been a renaissance in the study of regional growth, spurred by new models, methods and data. We survey a range of modelling traditions, and some formal approaches to the 'hard problem' of regional economics, namely the joint consideration of agglomeration and growth. We also review empirical methods and findings based on natural experiments, spatial discontinuity designs, and structural models. Throughout, we give considerable attention to regional growth in developing countries. Finally, we highlight the potential importance of processes that are specific to regional decline, and which deserve greater research attention.

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“…In the Chinese context, despite remarkable growth in income per capita, various measures of satisfaction with life or happiness appear not to have risen in recent years (Knight & Gunatilaka, 2011). Increasingly, researchers have begun to investigate the well-being of Chinese employees (Huang & Gamble, 2015;Sang, Teo, Cooper, & Bohle, 2013).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Job demands–resources: a gender perspective on employee well-being and resilience in retail stores in China

Huang

Xing

Gamble

2016

The International Journal of Human Resource Management

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Organisational resilience can be promoted through human resource management practices that enhance individual employees' well-being and ability to cope with adversity. However, the extant literature tends to neglect the influence of gender on employee well-being and resilience. Shopfloor employees in retail stores often undertake demanding roles, characterised by considerable pressure and low pay, and attendant high levels of employee turnover. Drawing on the job demands-resources model, by analysing data collected from 697 employees at foreign-invested retail stores in China, this paper found that workload and employee participation in decision-making had a similar impact on the well-being of both male and female employees. However, the impact of job security and emotional demands on employees differed by gender. This paper extends the job demands-resources model by articulating the influence of gender on employee well-being. Additionally, its empirical insights, drawn from an emerging economy context, enable a contribution to the literature on employee well-being and resilience. Relevant implications for human resource management and resilience are discussed.

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Does Economic Growth Raise Happiness in China?

Cited by 126 publications

References 25 publications

Subjective well-being in China, 2005–2010: The role of relative income, gender, and location

Subjective well-being in China, 2005–2010: The role of relative income, gender, and location

Regional Growth and Regional Decline

Job demands–resources: a gender perspective on employee well-being and resilience in retail stores in China

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