The Asymmetric Experience of Positive and Negative Economic Growth: Global Evidence Using Subjective Well-Being Data

Neve, Jan‐Emmanuel De; Ward, George; Keulenaer, Femke de; Landeghem, Bert Van; Kavetsos, Georgios; Norton, Michael I.

doi:10.2139/ssrn.2586417

Cited by 19 publications

(16 citation statements)

References 51 publications

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“…Our work highlights that the inclusion of subjective welfare measures, alongside objective measures, can be useful in helping researchers and policymakers to understand the economic lives of the poor and evaluate the broader welfare effects associated with policy interventions, important for cost–benefit analysis. In this regard, we contribute to the rapidly growing literature that uses subjective measures of well‐being to elicit measures of experienced utility (Aghion et al, 2016; Benjamin et al, 2012; De Neve et al, 2018; Dolan & Kahneman, 2008; Frey & Stutzer, 2002; Kahneman et al, 1997; Kahneman & Krueger, 2006; Layard, 2005), to value non‐market goods (Baylis, 2020; Carroll et al, 2009; Feddersen et al, 2015; Frey et al, 2010; Levinson, 2012; Rehdanz & Maddison, 2011; Welsch, 2002, 2006), and to evaluate government policy (Diener et al, 2009; Dolan et al, 2011; Gruber & Mullainathan, 2005).…”

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confidence: 99%

Blame it on the rain: Rainfall variability, consumption smoothing, and subjective well‐being in rural Ethiopia

Alem

Colmer

2021

American J Agri Economics

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How does income uncertainty affect individual well-being?Combining individual-level panel data from rural Ethiopia with high-resolution meteorological data, we estimate that mean-preserving increases in rainfall variability are associated with reductions in objective consumption and subjective well-being. Mediation analysis suggests that the estimated reduction in consumption does not fully explain the total effect on individual well-being. Increased rainfall variability also has a large direct effect on individual well-being. These findings suggest that the gains from further consumption smoothing are likely greater than estimates based solely on observed consumption fluctuations.

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confidence: 99%

Blame it on the rain: Rainfall variability, consumption smoothing, and subjective well‐being in rural Ethiopia

Alem

Colmer

2021

American J Agri Economics

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“…The impact of pessimism (when measured in terms of life satisfaction, and as estimated by OLS, FE, entropy balanced FE, and dynamic System GMM) is greater than that of optimism. 16 This is reminiscent of loss aversion, whereby individuals are affected by losses to a greater degree than they are by gains, a phenomenon that has received support in a well-being context (Boyce et al 2013b;De Neve et al 2018). 17 This latter study employs three different datasets and finds, overall, an asymmetric effect on life satisfaction between recessions and periods of economic growth consistent with loss aversion.…”

Section: Discussion Of Results Limitations and Suggestions For Future...mentioning

confidence: 99%

Optimism, pessimism and life satisfaction: an empirical investigation

Piper

2022

Int Rev Econ

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This is an empirical investigation into life satisfaction, using nationally representative German panel data. The study confirms with modern econometric techniques the previously found substantial association with an individual’s thoughts about the future, whether they are optimistic or pessimistic about it, with life satisfaction. In addition, the investigation demonstrates that the association holds when some possibly anticipated events (like, for example, divorce and unemployment) are controlled for. Furthermore, including individuals’ optimism and pessimism about the future substantially increases the explanatory power of standard life satisfaction models. The effect size is greater for individuals who report being pessimistic than that for well-understood negative events like unemployment. These effects are attenuated though do remain substantial after controlling for the following: individual fixed effects; statistically matching on observable variables between optimistic and pessimistic individuals; and addressing the potential endogeneity of optimism and pessimism to life satisfaction.

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“…Following prior research using the same Gallup World Poll dataset (e.g., De Neve et al, 2018; Powdthavee et al, 2017) and datasets with similar characteristics (e.g., Di Tella et al, 2003), we conducted logit models including country and year fixed effects. These fixed effects account for cultural factors and political events that occurred in specific countries and years, and may influence the relationship between income, income inequality, and prosocial behavior (Models 2, 5, 8, 11, and 14, Table 2 and 3).…”

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confidence: 99%

The Link Between Income, Income Inequality, and Prosocial Behavior Around the World

Macchia

Whillans

2021

Social Psychology

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Abstract. The questions of whether high-income individuals are more prosocial than low-income individuals and whether income inequality moderates this effect have received extensive attention. We shed new light on this topic by analyzing a large-scale dataset with a representative sample of respondents from 133 countries ( N = 948,837). We conduct a multiverse analysis with 30 statistical models: 15 models predicting the likelihood of donating money to charity and 15 models predicting the likelihood of volunteering time to an organization. Across all model specifications, high-income individuals were more likely to donate their money and volunteer their time than low-income individuals. High-income individuals were more likely to engage in prosocial behavior under high (vs. low) income inequality. Avenues for future research and potential mechanisms are discussed.

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The Asymmetric Experience of Positive and Negative Economic Growth: Global Evidence Using Subjective Well-Being Data

Cited by 19 publications

References 51 publications

Blame it on the rain: Rainfall variability, consumption smoothing, and subjective well‐being in rural Ethiopia

Blame it on the rain: Rainfall variability, consumption smoothing, and subjective well‐being in rural Ethiopia

Optimism, pessimism and life satisfaction: an empirical investigation

The Link Between Income, Income Inequality, and Prosocial Behavior Around the World

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