Relational Goods, Sociability, and Happiness

International audienceGiven the increasingly prominent role the Internet plays in people's daily life, understanding its influence on individual well-being is crucial. Internet use yields direct utility and economic returns that may increase life satisfaction. But the Internet might also have detrimental effects (e.g. addiction, social isolation). This paper aims to examine the impact of Internet use on individual well-being. Using Luxemburgish data extracted from the European Value Survey, we find evidence that non users are less satisfied in their life than Internet users. Moreover, the positive influence of Internet use is stronger for individuals who are young or not satisfied with their income. These findings suggest that public policies aiming to reduce the digital divide by reaching out to non-Internet users are socially desirable

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“…Sociability (i.e. contacts with family and friends) should also be positively correlated with happiness (Becchetti, Pelloni and Rossetti, 2008).…”

Section: Dependent Variablesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Does the Internet make people happier?

Pénard

Poussing

Suire

2013

The Journal of Socio-Economics

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“…Helliwell and Barrington-Leigh, 2010;Leung et al, 2010) or Germany (e.g. Becchetti et al, 2008;Winkelmann, 2009), countries which are rather homogeneous in terms of both social capital and happiness.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Social Capital and Individual Happiness in Europe

2013

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This paper explores the relationship between social capital and happiness both in Europe as a whole, as well as in its four main geographical macro-regions -North, South, East and Westseparately. We test the hypothesis of whether social capital, in its three-fold definition established by Coleman (1988) -trust, social interaction, and norms and sanctions -influences individual happiness across European countries and regions. The concept of social capital is further enriched by incorporating Putnam-(1993) and Olson-(1982) type variables on associational activity. Using ordinal logistic regression analysis on data for 48,583 individuals from 25 European countries, we reach three main findings. First, social capital matters for happiness across the three dimensions considered. Second, the main drivers of the effects of social capital on happiness appear to be informal social interaction and general social, as well as institutional trust. And third, there are significant differences in how social capital interacts with happiness across different areas of Europe, with the connection being at is weakest in the Nordic countries.

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“…The most important producers of these goods are family and friends. On a larger scale, they can also be produced by social events, such as concerts and sport events (Becchetti et al, 2008), or by actively engaging in volunteering associations.…”

Section: Related Literaturementioning

confidence: 99%

“…More specifically, we focus on social interactions in their specific role as consumption goods (i.e., relational goods). It is well known that social interactions play a significant role for individual wellbeing (Diwan, 2000;Aslam and Corrado, 2007;Becchetti et al, 2008;Bruni and Stanca, 2008; Bartolini and Bilancini, 2010;Becchetti et al, 2011;Van der Horst and Coffé, 2012;Böckerman et al, 2016). At the same time, social interactions do have a cost, either direct or indirect, and can therefore be affected by the state of the economy.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…To the extent that their consumption is procycical (anticyclical), social interactions can be expected to enhance (offset) the effecs of macroeconomic conditions on well-being. In addition, social interactions may provide support (Wills, 1991), solidarity, a sense of belonging (Becchetti et al, 2008), positive psychological states and positive emotions (Bradburn, 1969), that can contribute to moderate the effects of macroeconomic fluctuations on subjective well-being Berkman and Glass, 2000;: the well-being of individuals who enjoy higher levels of social interactions can be expected, ceteris paribus, to be less sensitive to the effects of macroeconomic fluctuations.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Macroeconomic Conditions and Well-Being: Do Social Interactions Matter?

2016

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This paper investigates the role played by social interactions as moderators and mediators of the effects of macroeconomic conditions on well-being. Using survey data for a representative sample of Italian individuals, we find that social interactions play a dual role. On the one hand, the well-being of people who spend more time with their friends or go out more often is less sensitive to the effects of macroeconomic fluctuations. On the other hand, social interactions are negatively affected by worsening macroeconomic conditions, thus playing a relevant role in the transmission of macroeconomic shocks to subjective well-being. More specifically, the negative impact of downturns on frequency of going out and active participation in associations significantly contributes to the adverse effects of recessions on satisfaction with life and with individual life domains.

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Relational Goods, Sociability, and Happiness

Cited by 51 publications

References 29 publications

Does the Internet make people happier?

Does the Internet make people happier?

Social Capital and Individual Happiness in Europe

Macroeconomic Conditions and Well-Being: Do Social Interactions Matter?

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