Will GDP growth increase happiness in developing countries?

This paper asks what low-income countries can expect from growth in terms of happiness. It interprets the set of available international evidence pertaining to the relationship between income growth and subjective well-being. Conforming to the Easterlin paradox, higher income always correlates with higher happiness, except in one case: whether national income growth yields higher well-being is still hotly debated; essentially, the question is whether the correlation coefficient is "too small to matter". The explanations for the small correlation between income growth and subjective well-being over time appeal to the nature of growth itself (e.g. negative side-effects such as pollution), and to the psychological importance of relative concerns and adaptation. The available evidence contains two important lessons: income comparisons do seem to affect subjective well-being even in very poor countries; however, adaptation may be more of a rich country phenomenon. Our stand is that the idea that growth will increase happiness in low-income countries cannot be rejected on the basis of the available evidence. First, cross-country time-series analyses are based on aggregate measures, which are less reliable than individual ones. Second, development is a qualitative process that involves take-offs and thresholds. Such regime changes are eye-visible through the lens of subjective satisfaction measures. The case of Transition countries is particularly impressive in this respect: average life satisfaction scores closely mirror changes in GDP for about the first ten years of the transition process, until the regime becomes more stable. If subjective measures of well-being were made available in low-income countries, they would certainly help measuring and monitoring the different stages and dimensions of the development process.income ; subjective well-being ; comparisons ; adaptation ; development

Is happiness different from flourishing? Cross-country evidence from the ESS

This paper appeals to novel survey information on over 30 000 individuals in 21 European countries to address an important and controversial question with respect to well-being: Do cognitive, hedonic and eudaimonic measures of well-being reflect very different aspects of individual quality of life? Or, more precisely, do the subjective appreciation of these dimensions by individuals exhibit different patterns? Our empirical results first reveal a very significant correlation between the measures of happiness and life satisfaction. Second, someone with high “hedonic” well-being (happiness or life satisfaction) is likely to have high eudaimonic well-being as well (flourishing, vitality, resilience and functioning). In addition, the factors that are correlated with the different measures of well-being seem to be very similar at the individual level. For example, marriage, higher income and greater education are associated with greater satisfaction, but also with higher levels of flourishing, vitality, resilience and functioning. This fit is not perfect, however, and men notably report lower levels of hedonic well-being but higher eudaimonic well-being.happiness ; life satisfaction ; eudaimonia ; European Social Survey

Who Compares to Whom? The Anatomy of Income Comparisons in Europe

This paper provides unprecedented direct evidence from large-scale survey data on both the intensity (how much?) and direction (to whom?) of income comparisons. Income comparisons are considered to be at least somewhat important by three-quarters of Europeans. They are associated with both lower levels of subjective well-being and a greater demand for income redistribution. The rich compare less and are more happy than average when they do, which latter is consistent with relative income theory. With respect to the direction of comparisons, colleagues are the most frequently-cited reference group. Those who compare to colleagues are happier than those who compare to other benchmarks; comparisons to friends are both less widespread and are associated with the lowest well-being scores. This is consistent with information effects, as colleagues' income arguably contains more information about the individual's own future prospects than do the incomes of other reference groups. Last, there is some evidence that reference groups are endogenous, with individuals tending to compare to those with whom they interact the most often.income comparisons, relative income, reference groups, happiness, redistribution, European Social Survey

Criteria for presidential performance reviews in higher education institutions in Virginia

The purpose of this study was to investigate current practices by which Virginia college and university boards assess their president. of prime importance to this study was the degree to which criteria used to conduct presidential performance appraisal reflect accepted standards for personnel evaluation in higher education institutions. This study utilized a mixed design. Completed surveys received from 26 Virginia college and university board chairs (67 percent of the 39 schools targeted) were analyzed using descriptive statistics and Mann-Whitney and Kruskal-Wallis Test analyses. Twenty presidents from this sample\u27s institutions were then interviewed to further explain and interpret how the variables that were revealed as a result of the survey differ and relate to each other.;Findings indicate that representatives of the 26 institutions taking part in the study conduct regular and systematic performance reviews of their president, most of which are informal in nature. Most participants agree on the criteria used to assess the president\u27s performance. Although the criterion, Administrative Leadership and Management, surfaces as the most important factor overall, additional analyses indicate that it is the most important criterion in private liberal arts institutions, whereas Academic Leadership and Management is the most important appraisal criterion in public doctoral and research institutions. In addition, performance criteria currently in place are characteristic of the four attributes the Personnel Evaluation Standards advocates.;Thematic analyses revealed that Virginia board chairs and presidents alike are interested in presidential performance appraisal and want to do it well. Board chairs and presidents agree with higher education researchers that certain criteria are important to consider when reviewing the president\u27s performance. These criteria center around: creation of a vision, being an advocate and role model for the institution, fostering good communication in an atmosphere of integrity, administrative skills, and financial management and fund raising skills

The (Unexpected) Structure of ?Rents? on the French and British Labour Markets

This paper considers the allocation of labour on the French and British markets, using objective wage and subjective satisfaction data. We show that, in some sectors, workers enjoy both higher wages and higher job satisfaction. We argue that this reflects labour market wage rents. Perhaps surprisingly, wage rents are typical of the British public sector and permanent contracts, but not of their French counterparts. In France, such rents are found in full-time, rather than part-time jobs. Hence, the data provide little support for the usual a priori that the French labour market is structured along insider-outsider model lines, whereby wage rents are captured by the insiders of the public sector to the detriment of the private sector. However, they do suggest that part-time employment is involuntary to a far greater extent in France than in Great Britain

Heterogeneity in reported well-being:Evidence from twelve European countries

Dans cet article nous modélisons la relation entre le revenu et le bien-être déclaré à l'aide de techniques à effet aléatoire appliquées sur des données de panel issues de douze pays européens. Il n'est pas possible de distinguer empiriquement une hétérogénéité des fonctions d'utilité (transformation du revenu en utilité) et une hétérogénéité des fonctions d'expression (transformation de l'utilité en bien-êttre déclaré); neanmoins, nous montrons que l'on peut fermement rejeter l'hypothèse selon laquelle ses deux opérations sont menées de la même façon dans les douze pays étudiés. L'"effet marginal du revenu sur le bien-être" diffère en effet très significativement entre les quatre classes mises en évidence; ce qui laisse supposer des préférences pour la redistribution et des comportements très différents entre ces classes. Nos résultats nous amènent à penser qu'agréger sans précaution des données issues de populations et de pays différents peut s'avérer une pratique dangeureuse.Revenu ; Utilité ; Bien-être ; Hétérogénéité ; Classes latentes

La croissance rend-elle heureux ? La réponse des données subjectives

Le recours aux données subjectives permet d'analyser le lien entre revenu et bien-être individuel. Depuis le paradoxe d'Easterlin, de nombreux travaux ont essayé d'expliquer pourquoi au niveau agrégé, la croissance du revenu national ne semblait pas nécessairement entraîner celle du bien-être. L'ensemble de travaux empiriques présentés ici mettent au jour des phénomènes de comparaison de revenu, d'adaptation et d'anticipations qui, se compensant, rendent parfois invisible le lien agrégé entre croissance et bonheur. Au total, cet ensemble de travaux montre que les individus évaluent leur situation à l'aune de leurs aspirations ; celles-ci jouent un rôle favorable ou néfaste, selon qu'elles sont perçues comme potentiellement réalisables ou non.bien-être subjectif ; normes ; comparaisons de revenu ; adaptation ; anticipation ; mobilité ; croissance ; données de panel

When Experienced and Decision Utility Concur: The Case of Income Comparisons

While there is now something of a consensus in the literature on the economics of happiness that income comparisons to others help determine subjective wellbeing, debate continues over the relative importance of own and reference-group income, in particular in research on the Easterlin paradox. The variety of results in this domain have produced some scepticism regarding happiness analysis, and in particular with respect to the measurement of reference-group income. We here use data from an original Internet survey in Japan to compare the results from happiness regressions to those from hypothetical-choice experiments. The trade-off between own and others' income (showing the importance of absolute and relative income) is similar in these two sets of results. This kind of validation of experienced utility via direct comparison with decision utility remains rare in this literature