A critique of the econometrics of happiness: Are we underestimating the returns to education and income?

A large "happiness", or life satisfaction, literature in economics makes use of Likert-like scales in assessing survey respondents' cognitive evaluations of their lives. These measures are being used to estimate economic benefits in every empirical field of economics. Typically, analysis of these data have shown remarkably low direct returns of education for improving subjective well-being. In addition, arguably, the inferred impact of material wealth and income using this method is also unexpectedly low as compared with other, social factors, and as compared with economists' prior expectations which underlie, in some sense, support for using GDP as a proxy for more general quality of life goals. Discrete response scales used ubiquitously for the reporting of life satisfaction pose cognitive challenges to survey respondents, so differing cognitive abilities result in different uses of the scale, and thus potential bias in statistical inference. This problem has so far gone unnoticed. An overlooked feature of the distribution of responses to life satisfaction questions is that they exhibit certain enhancements at focal values, in particular at 0, 5, and 10 on the eleven-point scale. In this paper, I investigate the reasons for, and implications of, these response patterns. I use a model to account for the focal-value behavior using a latent variable approach to capture the "internal" cognitive evaluation before it is translated to the discrete scale of a survey question. This approach, supported by other more heuristic ones, finds a significant upward correction for the effects of both education and income on life satisfaction

Veblen goods and neighbourhoods: endogenising consumption reference groups

One of the significant developments in the last four decades of economics is the growing empirical evidence that individual consumption preferences, as mea- sured by self-reported life satisfaction, are neither fixed nor self-centred but are instead overwhelmingly dominated by externalities, partly in the form of reference levels set by others and by one’s own experience. Welfare analysis recognising this fact is likely to indicate enormous revisions for macroeconomic policy and social objectives as well as for what is taught in economics at all levels. Yet the task of constructing general equilibrium models based on this microeconomic re- ality is still in its infancy. In this work I take the conventional stance that decision makers understand their own utility function. Therefore, they can choose the mi- lieu in which they immerse themselves with the sophisticated understanding that it will affect their own consumption reference levels and therefore the degree of satisfaction they derive from their private consumption. At the same time, their private consumption will help to set the reference level for others in their chosen group. I treat theoretically the problem of such endogenous formation of consump- tion reference groups in the context of a simultaneous choice of neighbourhoods and home consumption amongst a heterogenous population. For both discrete and continuous distributions of types, I find general equilibrium outcomes in which differentiation of neighbourhoods occurs endogenously and I compare the welfare implications of growth in such economies.reference income; veblen goods; consumption reference groups; club goods

Development of a mass spectrometer employing a photoionization source

Mass spectrometer using photoionization for ion productio

Overwrite fabrication and tuning of long period gratings

The central wavelengths of the resonance bands are critical aspect of the performance of long period gratings (LPGs) as sensors, particularly for devices designed to operate near the phase matching turning point (PMTP), where the sensitivity to measurements can vary rapidly. Generally, LPGs are characterized by their period, but the amplitude of the amplitude of the index modulation is also an important factor in determining the wavelengths of the resonance bands. Variations in fabrication between LPG sensors can increase or decrease the sensitivity of the LPG to strain, temperature or surrounding refractive index. Here, the technique of overwritten UV laser fabrication is demonstrated. It is shown that, on repeated overwriting, the resonance bands of an LPG exhibit significant wavelength shift, which can be monitored and which can be used to tune the resonance bands to the desired wavelengths. This technique is applied to periods in the range 100 to 200 µm, showing the cycle-to-cycle evolution of the resonance bands near the PMTPs of a number of cladding modes. The use of online monitoring is shown to reduce the resonance band sensor-to-sensor central wavelength variation from 10 nm to 3 nm

Empathy and Emulation: Life Satisfaction and the Urban Geography of Comparison Groups

Departures from self-centred, consumption-oriented decision making are increasingly common in economic theory and are well motivated by a wide range of behavioural data from experiments, surveys, and econometric inference. A number of studies have shown large negative externalities in individual subjective well-being due to neighbours' incomes. These reflect the role of nearby households as comparison groups acting in individuals' reference-dependent preferences over income or consumption. At the same time, there are many reasons to expect positive spillovers from having prosperous neighbours. We combine high-resolution geographic data from three Canada-wide social surveys and the 2001 census to disentangle the spatial pattern of reference groups in urban areas and to identify channels of positive and negative spillovers on life satisfaction. We find evidence of significant effects of others' income at different scales and are able to reject a number of alternative explanations for the findings.

Measuring and Understanding Subjective Well-Being

Increasing attention is being paid in academic, policy, and public arenas to subjective measures of well-being. This promising trend represents a shift towards measuring positive outcomes in psychology and greater realism in the study of economic behaviour. After a general review of past and potential uses for subjective well-being data, and a discussion of why some economists have previously been sceptical of SWB data, we present global and Canadian examples from our own research to illustrate what can be learned. Differences in subjective well-being will be shown to be large and sustained across individuals, communities, provinces and nations. Although the patterns of subjective well-being are very different across Canada than across the world, we show that in both cases the differences can be fairly well accounted for by the same set of life circumstances. Our examples of policy-relevant research findings include new accountings of the differences in individual-level SWB assessments around the world and across Canada. These highlight the importance of social factors whose role has otherwise been hard to quantify in income-equivalent terms.

International evidence on the social context of well-being

This paper uses the first three waves of the Gallup World Poll to investigate differences across countries, cultures and regions in the factors linked to life satisfaction, paying special attention to the social context. Our principal findings are: First, using the larger pooled sample, we find that answers to the satisfaction with life and Cantril ladder questions provide consistent views of what constitutes a good life, with an average of the two measures providing a clearer picture than either measure on its own. Second, we find strong evidence for the importance of both income and social context variables in explaining within-country and international differences in well-being. For most specifications tested, the combined effects of a few measures of the social and institutional context are as large as those of income in explaining both international and intra-national differences in life satisfaction. Third, the very significant influences of both income and social factors permit the calculation of compensating differentials for social factors. We find very large income-equivalent values for key measures of the social context. Fourth, the international similarity of the estimated equations suggests that the large international differences in average life evaluations are not due to different approaches to the meaning of a good life, but to differing social, institutional, and economic life circumstances

Maximum tumor diameter is associated with event-free survival in PET-negative patients with stage I/IIA Hodgkin lymphoma.

Introduction: the high cure rates achieved in early-stage (ES) Hodgkin lymphoma (HL) are one of the great successes of hemato-oncology, but late treatment-related toxicity undermines long-term survival. Improving overall survival and quality of life further will require maintaining disease control while potentially de-escalating chemotherapy and/or omitting radiotherapy to reduce late toxicity. Accurate stratification of patients is required to facilitate individualized treatment approaches. Response assessment using 18F-fluorodeoxyglucose positron emission tomography (PET) is a powerful predictor of outcome in HL,1,2 and has been used in multiple studies, including the United Kingdom National Cancer Research Institute Randomised Phase III Trial to Determine the Role of FDG–PET Imaging in Clinical Stages IA/IIA Hodgkin’s Disease (UK NCRI RAPID) trial, to investigate whether patients achieving complete metabolic remission (CMR) can be treated with chemotherapy alone.3-5 These PET-adapted trials have demonstrated that omitting radiotherapy results in higher relapse rates, but without compromising overall survival.3-5 For the 75% of patients who achieved CMR in RAPID, neither baseline clinical risk stratification (favorable/unfavorable) nor PET (Deauville score 1/2) predicted disease relapse; additional biomarkers are needed.1 Tumor bulk has long been recognized as prognostic in HL,1,6 but there remains uncertainty about the significance and definition of bulk in the era of PET-adapted treatment.7 We performed a subsidiary analysis of RAPID to assess the prognostic value of baseline maximum tumor dimension (MTD) in patients achieving CMR. Methods: ee have previously reported the RAPID trial design, primary results, and outcomes according to pretreatment risk stratification and PET score.1,3 Patients were aged 16 to 75 years with untreated ES-HL and without B-symptoms or mediastinal bulk (mass > 1/3 internal mediastinal diameter at T5/6).6 Metabolic response after 3 cycles of ABVD chemotherapy (doxorubicin, bleomycin, vinblastine, and dacarbazine) was centrally assessed using PET (N = 562). Patients with CMR (ie, Deauville score 1-2) were randomly assigned to receive involved field radiotherapy (IFRT; n = 208) or no further therapy (NFT; n = 211). PET-positive patients (score, 3-5; n = 143) received a fourth cycle of ABVD and IFRT. Baseline disease assessment was performed by computed tomography, and bidimensional target lesion measurements were reported by local radiologists in millimeters. The association of baseline MTD with HL-related event-free survival (EFS: progression or HL-related death) and progression-free survival (PFS) (progression or any-cause death) was assessed using Kaplan-Meier and Cox regression analyses. Non-HL deaths were either related to primary treatment toxicity or occurred in HL remission.1 United Kingdom ethical approval for the RAPID trial was via the UK Multicentre Research ethics committee. Results and discussion: baseline patient characteristics have been previously described.1 Median age was 34 years (range, 16-75 years); 184 (37.4%) of 492 patients had unfavorable risk by European Organisation for Research and Treatment of Cancer criteria, and 155 (32.3%) of 480 by German Hodgkin Study Groupcriteria. Median MTD for patients achieving CMR was 3.0 cm (interquartile range, 2.0-4.0 cm) and 3.0 cm (interquartile range, 1.8-4.5 cm) in the NFT and IFRT groups, respectively, whereas PET-positive patients had a median MTD of 3.9 cm (interquartile range, 2.8-5.1 cm). After a median follow-up of 61.6 m, 44 HL progression events occurred: 21 NFT, 9 IFRT and 14 PET-positive. No patient received salvage treatment without documented progression. Only 5 HL-related deaths occurred (1 IFRT, 4 PET-positive), and 12 non-HL deaths (4 NFT, 6 IFRT, 2 PET-positive).1 For patients with CMR (N = 419), there was a strong association between MTD and EFS (hazard ratio [HR], 1.19; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.02-1.39; P = .02), adjusting for treatment group, with an approximate 19% increase in HL risk per centimeter increase in MTD. The association was similar in both treatment groups (NFT HR, 1.20 [95% CI, 0.99-1.44; P = .06]; IFRT HR, 1.19 [95% CI, 0.92-1.55; P = .19]). The observed effect sizes did not markedly change after adjusting for baseline clinical risk factors, and similar results were observed for PFS (supplemental Table 1). In contrast, for PET-positive patients, there was no association between MTD and EFS (HR, 0.88; 95% CI, 0.70-1.11; P = .29) or PFS (HR, 0.87; 95% CI, 0.70-1.08; P = .21). In an exploratory analysis within the NFT group, MTD was dichotomized using increasing 1-cm intervals to investigate the relationship between MTD thresholds and EFS. The largest effect size was observed with an MTD threshold of ≥5 cm (Table 1). Similar results were observed for PFS; this threshold also performed best in time-dependent receiver operating characteristic curve analyses. It was not possible to assess MTD thresholds in the IFRT group with only 9 events. Among all randomized patients, 79 (18.9%) had MTD of ≥5 cm, the majority with mediastinal (n = 43), supraclavicular (n = 17), or cervical (n = 16) locations. Five-year EFS for patients with MTD of ≥5 cm randomly assigned to NFT and IFRT was 79.3% (n = 39; 95% CI, 66.6%-92.0%) and 94.9% (n = 40; 95% CI, 88.0%-100%), respectively (P = .03; Figure 1)

Veblen goods and neighbourhoods: endogenising consumption reference groups

One of the significant developments in the last four decades of economics is the growing empirical evidence that individual consumption preferences, as mea- sured by self-reported life satisfaction, are neither fixed nor self-centred but are instead overwhelmingly dominated by externalities, partly in the form of reference levels set by others and by one’s own experience. Welfare analysis recognising this fact is likely to indicate enormous revisions for macroeconomic policy and social objectives as well as for what is taught in economics at all levels. Yet the task of constructing general equilibrium models based on this microeconomic re- ality is still in its infancy. In this work I take the conventional stance that decision makers understand their own utility function. Therefore, they can choose the mi- lieu in which they immerse themselves with the sophisticated understanding that it will affect their own consumption reference levels and therefore the degree of satisfaction they derive from their private consumption. At the same time, their private consumption will help to set the reference level for others in their chosen group. I treat theoretically the problem of such endogenous formation of consump- tion reference groups in the context of a simultaneous choice of neighbourhoods and home consumption amongst a heterogenous population. For both discrete and continuous distributions of types, I find general equilibrium outcomes in which differentiation of neighbourhoods occurs endogenously and I compare the welfare implications of growth in such economies

Veblen goods and neighbourhoods: endogenising consumption reference groups

One of the significant developments in the last four decades of economics is the growing empirical evidence that individual consumption preferences, as mea- sured by self-reported life satisfaction, are neither fixed nor self-centred but are instead overwhelmingly dominated by externalities, partly in the form of reference levels set by others and by one’s own experience. Welfare analysis recognising this fact is likely to indicate enormous revisions for macroeconomic policy and social objectives as well as for what is taught in economics at all levels. Yet the task of constructing general equilibrium models based on this microeconomic re- ality is still in its infancy. In this work I take the conventional stance that decision makers understand their own utility function. Therefore, they can choose the mi- lieu in which they immerse themselves with the sophisticated understanding that it will affect their own consumption reference levels and therefore the degree of satisfaction they derive from their private consumption. At the same time, their private consumption will help to set the reference level for others in their chosen group. I treat theoretically the problem of such endogenous formation of consump- tion reference groups in the context of a simultaneous choice of neighbourhoods and home consumption amongst a heterogenous population. For both discrete and continuous distributions of types, I find general equilibrium outcomes in which differentiation of neighbourhoods occurs endogenously and I compare the welfare implications of growth in such economies