The Relationship Between Happiness and Consumption Expenditure: Evidence from Rural China

Zhu, Zhongkun; Ma, Wanglin; Leng, Chenxin; Wang, Youfa

doi:10.1007/s11482-020-09836-z

Cited by 48 publications

(42 citation statements)

References 56 publications

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“…Happiness influences and is influenced by many factors. Thus, endogeneity is likely to arise in regression models of happiness (Katsaiti, 2012; Zhu et al , 2021). Also, happiness is measured as an ordinal variable, and maize productivity is a continuous variable.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…labor productivity or total factor productivity) has become increasingly popular as improving productivity is the key to economic growth (DiMaria et al , 2020; Isham et al , 2021). Subjective well-being has attracted attention because it is a valuable alternative to monitoring people's quality of life beyond traditional economic measures such as income and expenditure (Zhu et al , 2021). It reflects peoples' satisfaction with their overall lives and specific aspects of their lives, such as occupations and social connections.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…First, the United Nations' Sustainable Development Goals emphasize the importance of ensuring healthy lives and promoting well-being for all ages (goal 4), and farmers are no exception. Nevertheless, there is a paucity of research on rural farmers' well-being (Nie et al , 2020; Zhu et al , 2021). Second, farmers are an important social group, and their farm productivity performance plays a pivotal role in ensuring national and global food security and boosting economic growth.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Happiness and farm productivity: insights from maize farmers in China

Vatsa

Zhou

et al. 2021

IJSE

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PurposeThe purpose of this study is to explore the relationship between farmers' happiness and farm productivity, taking maize production in China as an example.Design/methodology/approachThe conditional mixed process model is employed to account for the endogeneity that inevitably arises in regression models studying happiness and estimate the 2015 China Household Finance Survey data.FindingsThe empirical results show that a higher level of farmers' happiness is associated with higher maize productivity. The marginal return in maize productivity changes unevenly with increments in farmers' self-reported happiness on a five-point Likert scale. Farmers' happiness is positively determined by their age, educational level, farm size, machinery ownership, access to agricultural subsidy and car ownership. Machinery ownership and access to credit are two important factors that improve maize productivity.Research limitations/implicationsThe finding suggests that promoting the subjective well-being of farmers is conducive to higher productivity and improved national food security. The results have implications for China and other developing countries aiming for sustainable agricultural development.Originality/valueFirm-level data show that workers' happiness improves productivity. However, it is still unclear whether farmworkers' happiness affects farm productivity. Thus, this study provides the first empirical analysis of the impact of farmworkers' happiness on farm productivity.

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Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Happiness and farm productivity: insights from maize farmers in China

Vatsa

Zhou

et al. 2021

IJSE

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“…"Relative income" has a greater impact on happiness than absolute income, and when income is higher than the average of the surrounding groups or regions, individuals will have stronger happiness [9]. International research on the happiness of Chinese residents mainly starts from the impact of online shopping [10], home debt hold [11,12], consumer expenditure [13], property holding and investment [14,15], and individual entrepreneurship [16]. e study found that online shopping can significantly improve the happiness of rural residents [10], family debt holdings have significantly reduced happiness [11,12], consumer spending has a positive role on happiness [13], self-owned property improves happiness, but the rapid growth of property investment has a negative impact on happiness [14,15], and entrepreneurship improves happiness by increasing family income [16].…”

Section: Literature Reviewmentioning

confidence: 99%

Fuzzy Comprehensive Evaluation of Happiness Index of Nine Cities in Pearl River Delta Based on AHP

Xie

Liu

Qin

2021

Journal of Mathematics

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With the development of China’s economy and the improvement of national income level, people’s living demands have shifted from food and clothing to happiness, so happiness has become an important indicator to measure the performance of government performance. Scientific measure of residents’ happiness is an important research topic for scholars, but the academic quantitative research on Chinese residents’ happiness is less. A few quantitative studies often focus on the happiness of a single study subject at some time, and this paper uses the fuzzy comprehensive evaluation method to measure the nine cities in 2011–2018, not only the comparative happiness between horizontal cities and cities, and the study data longitudinal span from 2011 to 2018. A comparative study of multiple objects across space-time was conducted. Empirical results show that the happiness level of urban residents in the Pearl River Delta has three characteristics: regional structure differentiation, urban group aggregation, and siphon effect in central cities, and the corresponding policy suggestions are put forward according to the results of the empirical research.

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“…As a nonmarket force, social capital can effectively enhance residents’ subjective well-being, and play an important role in China’s pursuit of rural revitalization. However, nowadays very few scholars have examined this issue [ 30 ]. Social capital has regional features, as it varies with geographical locations and cultural environments.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Influence of Rural Social Capital and Production Mode on the Subjective Well-Being of Farmers and Herdsmen: Empirical Discovery on Farmers and Herdsmen in Inner Mongolia

Dong

Lin

et al. 2022

IJERPH

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Rural areas are crucial to the realization of sustainable development goals (SDGs). Rural social capital is indispensable for these areas to fulfil the SDGs. As China pursues rural revitalization, it is essential to achieve the sustainable development of rural areas within the agropastoral transition zone (APTZ) in northern China. The same applies to the SDGs’ realization in other APTZs across the globe. From the micro perspective of individual farmers and herdsmen, this article collected 732 microscopic datapoints through repeated rural surveys, and adopted the multivariate ordered probit model to empirically analyze how the subjective well-being of farmers and herdsmen in northern China’s APTZ was affected by the individual (person) and collective (community) layers of rural social capital. Specifically, the production mode was introduced to study the relationship between social capital and subjective well-being, and social capital was measured by a self-designed theoretical analysis framework, which covered six dimensions and two layers (person and community). It was verified that the individual social capital and collective social capital were mutually replaceable in terms of the effect on the subjective well-being of farmers and herdsmen. Additionally, this article examined the influence of different production modes on the social capital and subjective well-being of farmers and herdsmen, and discussed how the same amount of social capital contributes differently to the subjective well-being of farmers and herdsmen under different production models. The results showed that: (1) Social capital significantly promoted the subjective well-being of farmers and herdsmen, and social network was the leading contributor among the dimensions of individual social capital, while social trust was the leading contributor among the dimensions of collective social capital. By the contribution to the subjective well-being of farmers and herdsmen, the six dimensions of social capital can be ranked as social network > social trust > social participation > social standard > social fame > common vision. (2) Individual social capital and collective social capital were mutually replaceable in terms of enhancing the subjective well-being of farmers and herdsmen; when the individual social capital was insufficient, the collective social capital would exert a much greater influence on the subjective well-being of farmers and herdsmen; when the individual social capital grows, the farmers and herdsmen would depend less on collective social capital. (3) The same amount of social capital contributes differently to the subjective well-being of farmers and herdsmen under different production models; by contribution strength, the production models can be ranked as pure herdsmen (PH) > pure farmers (PF) > non-farmers/herdsmen (NFH) > farmers + herdsmen (FH). Finally, several policy suggestions were provided to improve the subjective well-being of farmers and herdsmen in APTZ. The results show that collective social capital eliminates the negative effect of individual social capital shortage on the subjective well-being of farmers and herdsmen. Thus, it is suggested to consider not only the construction of macroscopic hardware environment, but also to roll out policies and measures to improve the subjective well-being from the micro perspective of farmers and herdsmen. These suggestions are concentrated on the implementation of China’s rural revitalization strategy, and the creation of relevant institutions and cultural environments, as well as the optimization of the internal hierarchy of farmers and herdsmen’s social capital. The research results may help to promote the subjective well-being of farmers and herdsmen in rural areas within the APTZs of China and the world, and provide a reference and a path to realize SDGs in China and similar places across the globe.

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The Relationship Between Happiness and Consumption Expenditure: Evidence from Rural China

Cited by 48 publications

References 56 publications

Happiness and farm productivity: insights from maize farmers in China

Happiness and farm productivity: insights from maize farmers in China

Fuzzy Comprehensive Evaluation of Happiness Index of Nine Cities in Pearl River Delta Based on AHP

Influence of Rural Social Capital and Production Mode on the Subjective Well-Being of Farmers and Herdsmen: Empirical Discovery on Farmers and Herdsmen in Inner Mongolia

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