Why do economists study happiness?

Piekałkiewicz, Marcin

doi:10.1177/1035304617717130

Cited by 40 publications

(25 citation statements)

References 98 publications

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“…The studies of Helliwell, Layard, Stiglitz et al, Veenhoven, Diener and Seligman and others [ 8 – 12 ], have shown beyond a shadow of a doubt that if policymakers want to maximise the quality of life of their citizens, they need to consider subjective measures of well-being. Piekalkiewicz [ 13 ] states that happiness may act as a determinant of economic outcomes: it increases productivity, predicts one's future income and affects labour market performance. By measuring happiness, individuals themselves reveal their preference and assigned priority to various domains, which cannot be identified by a measure such as GDP.…”

Section: Background and Literature Reviewmentioning

confidence: 99%

The good, the bad and the ugly of lockdowns during Covid-19

2021

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Amidst the rapid global spread of Covid-19, many governments enforced country-wide lockdowns, with likely severe well-being consequences. In this regard, South Africa is an extreme case suffering from low levels of well-being, but at the same time enforcing very strict lockdown regulations. In this study, we analyse the causal effect of a lockdown and consequently, the determinants of happiness during the aforementioned. A difference-in-difference approach is used to make causal inferences on the lockdown effect on happiness, and an OLS estimation investigates the determinants of happiness after lockdown. The results show that the lockdown had a significant and negative impact on happiness. In analysing the determinants of happiness after lockdown, we found that stay-at-home orders have positively impacted happiness during this period. On the other hand, other lockdown regulations such as a ban on alcohol sales, a fear of becoming unemployed and a greater reliance on social media have negative effects, culminating in a net loss in happiness. Interestingly, Covid-19, proxied by new deaths per day, had an inverted U-shape relationship with happiness. Seemingly people were, at the onset of Covid-19 positive and optimistic about the low fatality rates and the high recovery rates. However, as the pandemic progressed, they became more concerned, and this relationship changed and became negative, with peoples' happiness decreasing as the number of new deaths increased.

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Section: Background and Literature Reviewmentioning

confidence: 99%

The good, the bad and the ugly of lockdowns during Covid-19

2021

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“…Bryson et al . (2016) and Piekalkiewicz (2017) state that happiness may act as a determinant of economic outcomes: it increases productivity, predicts one’s future income and affects labour market performance. Many constitutions state that maximising happiness is at the core of their policymaking.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A Tale of Three Countries: What is the Relationship Between COVID‐19, Lockdown and Happiness?

Greyling

Rossouw

Adhikari

2021

South African J Economics

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The COVID‐19 pandemic led many governments to implement lockdown regulations to curb the spread of the virus. Though lockdowns do minimise the physical damage caused by the virus, there may also be substantial damage to population well‐being. Using a pooled data set, we analyse the relationship between a mandatory lockdown and happiness in three diverse countries: South Africa, New Zealand and Australia. These countries differ amongst others in terms of lockdown regulations and duration. The primary aim is to determine, whether a lockdown is negatively associated with happiness, notwithstanding the characteristics of a country or the strictness of the lockdown regulations. Second, we compare the effect size of the lockdown on happiness between these countries. We use Difference‐in‐Difference estimations to determine the association between lockdown and happiness and a Least Squares Dummy Variable estimation to study the heterogeneity in the effect size of the lockdown by country. Our results show that a lockdown is associated with a decline in happiness, regardless of the characteristics of the country or the type and duration of its lockdown regulations. Furthermore, the effect size differs between countries in the sense that the more stringent the stay‐at‐home regulations are, the greater it seems to be.

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“…However, there is much less research on the effects of heat stress 1 more broadly on well-being [subjective wellbeing (SWB)], of which physical health is one facet. Variations in well-being have economic consequences (Piekałkiewicz 2017) and hot weather reduces wellbeing even if the effects are not physically manifest (Rehdanz and Maddison 2005;Connolly 2013;Tsutsui 2013). However, the concept of well-being has many dimensions (Steptoe et al 2015;Frey 2018).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Climate Change–Related Heat Stress and Subjective Well-Being in Australia

Zander

Moss

Garnett

2019

Weather, Climate, and Society

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There is mounting evidence that climate change impacts compromise people’s well-being. Many regions of Australia have experienced record hot temperatures and more frequent and longer heat waves with substantial consequences for people, economies, and ecosystems. Using data from an Australia-wide online survey with 1101 respondents, we investigated the relationship between self-reported measures of heat stress and different dimensions of subjective well-being. After controlling for socioeconomic factors known to affect well-being, we found that heat stress was linked to people’s certainty about and planning for their future but not to their life satisfaction, happiness, social state, capabilities, or purpose in life. This result indicates that, while heat is not associated with present well-being, many people worry about the effect that increased heat will have on their future well-being. People who were uncertain about their future were also more likely than those who did not feel uncertain to think that heat compromised their productivity. People who agreed that they were competent and capable in their activities rated their heat stress–related productivity loss lower than those who disagreed. The findings are relevant for future studies using life-satisfaction approaches to assess consequences of climate change impacts and to studies in “happiness economics.” We recommend that future research on the impact of climate change on well-being go beyond simply life satisfaction and happiness and test multiple dimensions of well-being.

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Why do economists study happiness?

Cited by 40 publications

References 98 publications

The good, the bad and the ugly of lockdowns during Covid-19

The good, the bad and the ugly of lockdowns during Covid-19

A Tale of Three Countries: What is the Relationship Between COVID‐19, Lockdown and Happiness?

Climate Change–Related Heat Stress and Subjective Well-Being in Australia

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