Are optimistic expectations keeping the Chinese happy?

Frijters, Paul; Liu, Amy Y.C.; Meng, Xin

doi:10.1016/j.jebo.2011.09.007

Cited by 47 publications

(38 citation statements)

References 28 publications

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“…Expected improvement (decline) in personal economic position in the next 10 years positively and significantly (negative and insignificant) affected well-being which is consistent with Tao and Chiu (2009) who found a positive and significant role for upward comparisons in China while the role of downward comparisons is insignificant. 33 This finding is also similar to that of Frijters, Liu and Meng (2012) and Liu and Shang (2012) both of which used data from Chinese Household Income Project 2002 34 . However even after controlling for relative and aspiration income effects, the influence of absolute income persists in Table 5.…”

Section: Full Sample Analysissupporting

confidence: 62%

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

Asadullah

Xiao

Yeoh

2018

China Economic Review

138

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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: Full Sample Analysissupporting

confidence: 62%

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

Asadullah

Xiao

Yeoh

2018

China Economic Review

138

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“…As they explain, linear regressions and ordered probit results are largely consistent with each other, while the linear regressions have a more direct interpretation and can more easily control for fixed effects. Thus, similar to other studies (e.g., Frijters et al, 2008), I report here only the results from linear regressions. Results from ordinal regressions are relegated to Appendix A.…”

Section: Regression Analysissupporting

confidence: 79%

“…8 Expectations in this experiment refer to expectations about the current round's payment, not the payment in future rounds. They should thus be distinguished from the positive effect of expectation on happiness found by Frijters et al (2008) because expectations there refer to future income levels and not just the current period. further examine this issue to determine how and to what extent aspirations over small outcomes aggregate to overall life happiness.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 98%

Money, happiness, and aspirations: An experimental study

McBride

2010

Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization

123

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a b s t r a c tThe past decade has witnessed an explosion of interest in the scientific study of happiness. Economists, in particular, find that happiness increases in income but decreases in income aspirations, and this work prompts examination of how aspirations form and adapt over time. This paper presents results from the first experimental study of how multiple factors-past payments, social comparisons, and expectations-influence aspiration formation and reported satisfaction. I find that expectations and social comparisons significantly affect reported satisfaction, and that subjects choose to compare themselves with similar subjects when possible. These findings support an aspirations-based theory of happiness.

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“…While most of the existing literature studies the relationship between income aspirations and subjective well-being (Easterlin 2001;Van Soest 1997 andStutzer, 2004;Senik, 2008;Frijters et al 2012;Boyce et al, 2013), our analysis compares aspirations and subsequent matched realizations of life satisfaction, and investigates how the discrepancy between these two affects the consequent life satisfaction realizations and aspirations. Indeed, we share the fundamental idea that "money is not enough to make people happy" and that, in addition to economic dimensions, non-economic factors and well-being aspirations play a crucial role in determining both the actual level of life satisfaction and subsequent targets Stutzer, 2002a, 2002b;van Praag and Ferrer-i-Carbonell, 2007;Bruni and Porta, 2005;Dolan et al, 2008).…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Given our data, we are going to evaluate the effect of a positive or a negative difference between S t−1 and E[S t−6 t−1 ], our treatment variables, on the subsequent life satisfaction realization, S t , and on E[S t−1 t+4 ], the life satisfaction aspirations expressed at time t − 1. As a consequence, we consider only individuals for whom we observe S t , E[S 1984-2012, version 29, SOEP, 2013. 4 The exact wording of the questions in English is as follows: How satisfied are you at present with your life as a whole?…”

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confidence: 99%

Life Satisfaction and Endogenous Aspirations

Bertoni

Corazzini

2015

SSRN Journal

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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. Terms of use: Documents in SOEPpapers on Multidisciplinary Panel Data Research at DIW BerlinThis series presents research findings based either directly on data from the German SocioEconomic Panel study (SOEP) or using SOEP data as part of an internationally comparable data set (e.g. CNEF, ECHP, LIS, LWS, CHER/PACO). SOEP is a truly multidisciplinary household panel study covering a wide range of social and behavioral sciences: economics, sociology, psychology, survey methodology, econometrics and applied statistics, educational science, political science, public health, behavioral genetics, demography, geography, and sport science.The decision to publish a submission in SOEPpapers is made by a board of editors chosen by the DIW Berlin to represent the wide range of disciplines covered by SOEP. There is no external referee process and papers are either accepted or rejected without revision. Papers appear in this series as works in progress and may also appear elsewhere. They often represent preliminary studies and are circulated to encourage discussion. Citation of such a paper should account for its provisional character. A revised version may be requested from the author directly.Any opinions expressed in this series are those of the author(s) and not those of DIW Berlin.Research disseminated by DIW Berlin may include views on public policy issues, but the institute itself takes no institutional policy positions. 29-5-2015Abstract Using data from the German Socio-Economic Panel (N = 13,145), we investigate the effects of (not) achieving aspirations on subjective well-being. We match individual-level data about life satisfaction aspirations with their subsequent realizations and we jointly estimate two panel-data equations, the first depicting the effects that (not) achieving initial aspirations exerts on the subsequent level of life satisfaction, and the second describing the endogenous adjustment process followed by aspirations as a function of beaten and unmet targets. We find that while achieving aspirations exerts weak effects on life satisfaction, failing to match aspired conditions significantly reduces subsequent realizations of life satisfaction.Moreover, our analysis supports a "hedonic adaptation" explanation of the previous results, as we find that aspirations significantly adjust to beaten targets, while they remain almost unchanged in case of unmet targets.

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Are optimistic expectations keeping the Chinese happy?

Cited by 47 publications

References 28 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

Money, happiness, and aspirations: An experimental study

Life Satisfaction and Endogenous Aspirations

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