...Abstract This paper explores the direct relationship between income and happiness. The first section of the paper discusses the issue of economics and migration and what this means for people’s happiness. The second section has to do with the correlation between age, money and happiness. It researches to see if your age has any effect on your happiness when it comes to your income level. The paper also talks about the main relationship between income and happiness and how having any kind of inequality can greatly affect your happiness in life. It looks into a certain situation where they look at the relationship between a family’s income and their happiness as a whole. The last section of the paper is one quite interesting because it looks into the concept of being self-employed and what effect, if any, it has on your happiness. One would think that it would cause a positive effect because you are your own boss, but the article goes into more depth with the direct and indirect ways it affects you and also on a national and individual level of self-employment. The Economics of Happiness There are two different sections for when it comes to the concept of economics and migration. The first part has to do with people migrating to another country looking for better opportunities and furthermore, in income. When they migrate from a less developed country to a more developed country, they have a belief that since it is a better economy, they will have more wealth. This belief...
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...In Daedalus, the two excerpts “The Economics of Happiness” by Robert A. Easterlin and “How Not to buy Happiness” by Robert H. Frank, claim that money can play a significant role in happiness. Happiness is usually described as a way of living a good life and satisfied with yourself. However, the idea of happiness does change often; including the methods of becoming happy. When people think of money; they think of expensive gadgets and high paying jobs. Money is not always the answer to everything; it is only a factor of achieving happiness. Money is not the only way to achieve happiness. There are other ways to achieve happiness, these ways can be making a new friend, finally finishing a painting or checking off a goal on a bucket list....
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...data sets. Week 6 Measuring happiness Suzy Moat Tobias Preis Suzy.Moat@wbs.ac.uk Tobias.Preis@wbs.ac.uk What we’ve covered Measuring Predicting What we’ve covered Measuring Economics Health Predicting What we’ve covered Measuring Predicting Economics Economics Health Crime What we’ve covered Measuring Predicting Economics Economics Health Crime Happiness Social networks http://www.ted.com/talks/nicholas_christakis_the_hidden_influence_of_social_networks.html Twitter and happiness Positive affect Negative affect Golder and Macy (2011, Science) Twitter and happiness Positive affect Negative affect Golder and Macy (2011, Science) Facebook and happiness Own updates % positive words % negative words Kramer et al. (2014, PNAS) Negativity reduced Positivity reduced News feed Facebook and happiness Own updates More positive % positive words % negative words More negative Kramer et al. (2014, PNAS) Negativity reduced Positivity reduced News feed Facebook and happiness Own updates % positive words % negative words Kramer et al. (2014, PNAS) Negativity reduced Positivity reduced News feed Facebook and happiness Own updates % positive words % negative words Kramer et al. (2014, PNAS) Negativity reduced Positivity reduced News feed Facebook and happiness Own updates % positive words ...
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...Wealth, Happiness, and the National Economy, Is There A Paradox? Question Does a healthy national economy increase the happiness of the nation’s citizens? Background America is still recovering from the greatest recession sense the Great Depression and many countries around the world are now struggling with bad economies, unemployment, and massive debt. But why are governments so concerned about the economy? Governments care because it is believed that a better national economy leads to a better quality of life for the nation’s citizens. So, governments spend billions of dollars as an attempt to help the nation’s economy grow, which should lead to a better life for the nation’s citizens. This seems like it has good intentions, but many governments borrow the money they use for this spending and that only creates new problems. In the United States, the total debt is greater than its total economic output, and this debt will only hinder future and long term growth. On top of all that, the idea that a better national economy will make the citizens happier overall contradicts the idea that money doesn’t buy happiness. Does this mean that money actually does buy happiness, or does it mean that the economy doesn’t have anything to do with people’s happiness? Some regions are poorer than the United States and yet are happier, an example is Latin America. Other richer countries, like the United States, Japan, and China have had great economic growth over the past few...
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...China’s New Challenge: Declining Happiness in a Growing Economy By Shiyu Song Dr. Nikolaev Econ 385R 03J 21st November 2013 Abstract Since 1978, China has seen a sustainable rapid growth in its economy. China’s real GDP has already surpassed 7 trillion US dollars in 2011 in current dollars, and it has replaced Japan as the world’s second largest economy. People in China also have significant improvements in their standards of living and material life. However, my findings contradict the notion that an increase in income and standard of living will gain people happiness. My major findings show that income inequality and other major social problems, such as lack of religious belief and faith, political problems, and family burden have contributed to the decline of happiness among Chinese people. Other negative feelings emerging with the rapid economic growth, such as greed, interpersonal distrust and less compassion show adverse effects on Chinese happiness. I conclude the research by suggesting possible future researches for further studies. 1. Introduction After the Cultural Revolution ended in 1978, China launched a comprehensive reformation in its state controlled economy under the new leadership, Mr. Deng Xiaoping. Since then, China has gradually opened its door to the world and begun its transition into a market economy. (Chai, 1997) Over the past thirty years, China had the most enduring and rapid economic growth in the human history. According to the Federal...
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...story? Happiness in the new post-communist EU member states Sergiu Bălțătescu University of Oradea, Romania www.sergiubaltatescu.info Abstract: Ten of the post-communist countries managed to integrate into EU. Which are the subjective outcomes of socio-economic transformations in these countries? Did they manage to increase their citizens’ happiness in this process? To give an answer to these questions I used data from Candidate Countries Eurobarometer (2001-2004), Standard Eurobarometers (2005-2007), and World Bank Development Indicators. Developments in average national happiness have been compared with the economic (GDP, optimism concerning the level of living) and political (satisfaction with democracy) trends on the same time span. In all the studied societies, trends were positive after 2001. Eastern European countries showed higher increases in GNI per capita and also life satisfaction than in the rest of European Union. Those who started with lower levels increased more, strongly suggesting a possibility of convergence. A non-economic factor, satisfaction with democracy, mediates the influence of GNI on life satisfaction. Overall, access of Eastern European countries in European Union seems to be a success story, from both economic and non-economic points of view. However, the economic crisis may change the prognosis, raising the issue of sustainability of growth in happiness levels. Keywords: subjective well-being; economic development;...
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...J Happiness Stud (2011) 12:323–341 DOI 10.1007/s10902-010-9190-1 RESEARCH PAPER A Different Rationale for Redistribution: Pursuit of Happiness in the European Union John Cullis • John Hudson • Philip Jones Published online: 3 March 2010 Ó Springer Science+Business Media B.V. 2010 Abstract This paper considers the role of redistribution in the light of recent research findings on self reported happiness. The analysis and empirical work reported here tries to relate this to a representative actor ‘homo realitus’ and the ‘pursuit of happiness’ rather than the traditional ‘homo economicus’. Econometrically estimating the determinants of happiness in the European Union (EU) using Eurobarometer data and the construction of an ‘Index of Happiness’ facilitates policy simulations. Such simulations find that in terms of average happiness there is little advantage to redistributing income within a country, but more from redistributing income between countries. The importance for happiness of relative income, average standard of living, marital status and age are confirmed. The theoretical rationale for redistribution is also examined. Keywords Happiness Á Income redistribution Á EU 1 Introduction Beveridge (1942) stated that: ‘‘The object of government in peace and in war is not the glory of rulers or of races, but the happiness of the common man’’.1 As Director of the London School of Economics he was the author of the report that inspired the extension of the UK welfare state...
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...Juan Jose´ Barrios 1 Introduction 1.1 The Issue Mainstream Economic theory and most Professional Economists postulate that competition drives the forces of development and improves economic well-being. To the extent that happiness is a measure of well-being,1 then competition and happiness should be positively associated. First, competition creates positive incentives for producers to boost technological progress, improve efficiency and optimize resource allocation, thus improving social welfare. Additionally, competition should improve consumers’ wellbeing by putting downward pressure on prices because consumers, for equal quality, should have more opportunities to buy cheaper products, kicking inefficient suppliers out of the market.2 Non-competitive structures, such as oligopoly, may not survive due to the incentives to free ride supply agreements (e.g. cartels). On the other hand, Monopolists, who charge higher prices and produce less than the optimal quantity of product, are threatened by governments when the latter show credible intentions to approve laws to deregulate and liberalize production and factor markets. When governments pass laws to foster competition, they may create the appropriate environments leading to economic growth and development. These considerations suggest that institutional environments aiming at creating more competitive market structures may lead to better economic outcomes. In particular, institutional forms such as competition...
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...A STUDY: INCOME AND HAPPINESS ACROSS EUROPE: DO REFERENCE VALUES MATTER? Contents Summary 2 The Silver Lining of Materialism: The Impact of Luxury Consumption on Subjective Well-Being 3 Data used for analysis 5 Econometric Model 6 Critical Reflection 8 Reference List 11 A Study: Income and happiness across Europe: Do reference values matter? Summary The authors in this study - Guglielmo Maria Caporale, Yannis Georgellis, Nicholas Tsitsianis and Ya Ping Yin - assess the relationship between income and subjective well-being; by tracing back to works of Adam Smith, Karl Marx, Veblen and Duesenberry, the authors revive significant attention to the neoclassical economic theory that portrays well-being and absolute income to be highly correlated. The data was retrieved from the European Social Survey (ESS) to examine a potential relationship between income and happiness (self-reported satisfaction), the authors execute their study across 19 European Countries. With utilisation of Easterlin (1974) as their seminal paper, the research draws attention to the Easterlin Paradox (Easterlin, 1995) that suggests there is no relationship between economic expansion in industrialised countries and its average level of happiness. The authors look to assess topical contradictory findings that conclude absolute income is correlated with levels of happiness (e.g.: Frijters et al., 2004). The research purpose of this paper was to re-examine this controversial link for...
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...generations: alternatives to economic growth More or less? We love comparing, measuring, rating, and quantifying things. It started in school, who does better at school, who’s better at sports, who has more toys? It followed into puberty, with who owns the better clothes, who has the most dates, who goes to the better college? And finally, straight into adulthood comparing jobs, income, house sizes and cars. Excuse me for my bluntness, but in a world with 7.4 billion people and an infinite number of categories in which to compare yourself, there will always be someone that has more, or is “better” than you are in some way. Nevertheless, is more always better? Or could the opposite be true, could less be more? More is more We have grown up surrounded by abundance, and we are always achieving for more and aspiring to get the next best thing. We work more hours to get paid more to buy more things in the hopes of being happier. This belief is somewhat true. Income and happiness are related to a certain extent. An increase in the level of income is positively related to an increase in the level of happiness, until achieving an annual income of approximately 13,000 USD. After this point, happiness remains stable even when the income increases.1 Since 1950, GDP per capita in countries like the UK and the US has more than tripled, but people there are not any happier than before. Why is that? World experts in the subject of happiness, Dr. Diener, Dr. Lyubomirsky...
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...Macroeconomics: Branch of economics that studies the economy as a whole, especially the overall levels of production, employment, consumption, investment and prices. Microeconomics: Branch of economics that studies the individual behavior of firms and consumers and how they interact on a particular market. Macroeconomics focuses on the following issues: - Where does economic growth come from? - Could economic growth continue indefinitely, or is there some limit to growth? - Is there anything that governments can do to alter economic growth? - What are the origins of business cycles? - Should governments act to smooth business cycles ? - What does cause high rates of inflation? - How does the central bank affect prices and interest rates? - What are the root causes of a high unemployment rate? - Should countries adopt fixed or flexible exchange rates against the U.S. dollar? To answer previous questions, Macroeconomists use theories and models. - In economics, as in other sciences, explanations and predictions are based on theories and models. - A theory is a set of rules and assumptions used to explain observed phenomena. - A model is a simplified representation of the reality based on theories. - In economics, a model usually consists of a system of equations. 1 14/01/2016 - The relationship between facts, theories, model, and predictions: Predictions Model Theories Data “If I couldn’t formulate a problem in economic theory mathematically...
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...Taylor Moskalyk – 500296291 Professor Maurer CGEO 108, Sec. November 27, 2011 “Giving Happiness a Number: A look at Gross National Happiness as an overall strategy” It seems nowadays that the world is moving in one direction, with the west taking the driver’s seat, Europe riding shotgun, and the rest of the world sitting in the back with Africa, the crying infant in need of a diaper change. But there is one Country that seems to be going against the grain; putting greater significance on things humanity seems to forget from time to time, like human well-being and the environment. Sandwiched in between China and India is a small country called Bhutan, a country that takes a different approach when looking at the well-being of its citizens. In 1972, 17 year-old Jigme Singye Wangchuck became the 4th Dragon Emperor of Bhutan, and implemented a new system that structures an economy around the happiness of its population. Gross National Happiness (GNH) is the sadly unorthodox alternative to GDP, based on Buddhist beliefs; it puts value in the happiness, not money when valuing a country. It is the only country in the world that uses this system of measurement. Although this system has the best intentions for the people and its surrounding environment, it is not the best overall strategy because it doesn’t adequately incorporate economic growth, which is very important to a country’s well-being. At first glance it seems like a truly distinct, altruistic approach to GDP but it...
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...feel grief for children they have lost, so infant mortality might be used as an indicator of happiness. (Oulton, 2012) However, many important economic activities are entirely excluded from GDP measurement, such as volunteer work, social capital formation within healthy family units, the costs of crime and an increasing prison population, and the depletion of natural resources. Since its creation, economist and statisticians who have experienced in GDP highlighted that it was only a measure of economic activity, not a social well-being. One of those is Simon Kuznets, the chief architect of the United States national accounting system and GDP. He warned against equating GDP growth with economic or social...
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...Section: Society In Waiting for Godot Beckett proposes the view that happiness can never be enduring; it comes and goes and is subject to chance and change. Whether in postwar 1953 or credit crisis 2009, is encouraging people to think happy thoughts more like a desperate recourse to denial than a therapy struggling to engage with reality? Vladimir: Say you are, even if it's not true. Estragon: What am I to say? Vladimir: Say, I am happy. Estragon: I am happy. Vladimir: So am I. Estragon: So am I. Vladimir: We are happy. Estragon: We are happy. (Silence.) What do we do now, now that we are happy? Vladimir: Wait for Godot.( n1) An outbreak of happiness interrupts the otherwise bleak landscape of Waiting for Godot. Samuel Beckett's play, first produced in Paris during 1953, has justifiably become a classic of modern theatre. Neither comedy nor tragedy, but a mixture of both -- with ample quantities of clowning thrown in for good measure -- the whole becomes a vehicle for dramatic meaning and irony. It would be easy to discount this play as a period piece of postwar angst, belonging to the vanished world of existentialism that marked so much European culture after the Second World War. Following two world wars, mass genocide, and economies geared to armed conflict, happiness may have struck contemporaries in the early 1950s as a luxurious and vacuous entity. There was, for example, an urgent debate about whether any literature, art, or drama was possible after Auschwitz...
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...Topic: Some people think personal happiness is directly related to economic success, while others believe this depends on other factors. Discuss both sides and give your own opinion. The populace have different views about whether personal happiness is positively correlated with their financial achievement or it is drived by other factors. Personally, I tend forward the viewpoint that other factors are equally significant as economic success in terms of personal satisfaction. On the one hand, I agree that financial achievement is necessary for the populace to meet their demand of happiness. For instance, high quality forward suits and famous brand watches both could embody a person’s success in their career, which retains people’s satisfied feeling. Besides, most successful businessmen, artists and entertainer are interested in purchasing luxury products which symbolize their achievement of finance and their signature happy lifestyle. If they neglected the economic ground, they would find it hard to cheer themselves up again. That is why those artists and musicians mostly likely to live alone without family and friends and remain a basic living standard sadly. Nevertheless, I believe that some other elements also contribute to people’s happy life. Firstly, a family filled up with love plays a significant part in one’s happiness. To take the former professional boxer Michael Tyson as an example, even he earned 30 million for one fight, never has he felt happy, which is exposed...
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