Life Satisfaction and Relative Income: Perceptions and Evidence

Using a unique dataset we study both the actual and self-perceived relationship between subjective well-being and income comparisons against a wide range of potential comparison groups, enabling us to investigate a broader range of questions than in previous studies. In questions inserted into a 2008 module of the German-Socio Economic Panel Study we ask subjects to report (a) how their income compares to various groups, such a co-workers, friends, and neighbours, and (b) how important these income comparisons are to them. We find substantial gender differences, with income comparisons being much better predictors of subjective well-being in men than in women. Generic (same-gender) comparisons are the most important, followed by within profession comparisons. Once generic and within-profession comparisons are controlled for, income relative to neighbours has a negative coefficient, implying that living in a high-income neighbourhood increases happiness. The perceived importance of income comparisons is found to be uncorrelated with its actual relationship to subjective well-being, suggesting that people are unconscious of its real impact. Subjects who judge comparisons to be important are, however, significantly less happy than subjects who see income comparisons as unimportant. Finally, the marginal effect of relative income on subjective well-being does not depend on whether a subject is below or above the reference group income.income comparisons, relative income, life satisfaction, German Socio Economic Panel Study, SOEP

Late-Life Decline in Well-Being across Adulthood in Germany, the UK, and the US: Something Is Seriously Wrong at the End of Life

Throughout adulthood and old age, levels of well-being appear to remain relatively stable. However, evidence is emerging that late in life well-being declines considerably. Using long-term longitudinal data of deceased participants in national samples from Germany, the UK, and the US, we examine how long this period lasts. In all three nations and across the adult age range, well-being was relatively stable over age, but declined rapidly with impending death. Articulating notions of terminal decline associated with impending death, we identified prototypical transition points in each study between three and five years prior to death, after which normative rates of decline steepened by a factor of three or more. The findings suggest that mortality-related mechanisms drive late-life changes in well-being and highlight the need for further refinement of psychological concepts about how and when late-life declines in psychosocial functioning prototypically begin.Selective mortality, successful aging, differential aging, psychosocial factors, well-being, multiphase growth model

LTC: a novel algorithm to improve the efficiency of contig assembly for physical mapping in complex genomes

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Physical maps are the substrate of genome sequencing and map-based cloning and their construction relies on the accurate assembly of BAC clones into large contigs that are then anchored to genetic maps with molecular markers. High Information Content Fingerprinting has become the method of choice for large and repetitive genomes such as those of maize, barley, and wheat. However, the high level of repeated DNA present in these genomes requires the application of very stringent criteria to ensure a reliable assembly with the FingerPrinted Contig (FPC) software, which often results in short contig lengths (of 3-5 clones before merging) as well as an unreliable assembly in some difficult regions. Difficulties can originate from a non-linear topological structure of clone overlaps, low power of clone ordering algorithms, and the absence of tools to identify sources of gaps in Minimal Tiling Paths (MTPs).</p> <p>Results</p> <p>To address these problems, we propose a novel approach that: (i) reduces the rate of false connections and Q-clones by using a new cutoff calculation method; (ii) obtains reliable clusters robust to the exclusion of single clone or clone overlap; (iii) explores the topological contig structure by considering contigs as networks of clones connected by significant overlaps; (iv) performs iterative clone clustering combined with ordering and order verification using re-sampling methods; and (v) uses global optimization methods for clone ordering and Band Map construction. The elements of this new analytical framework called Linear Topological Contig (LTC) were applied on datasets used previously for the construction of the physical map of wheat chromosome 3B with FPC. The performance of LTC vs. FPC was compared also on the simulated BAC libraries based on the known genome sequences for chromosome 1 of rice and chromosome 1 of maize.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>The results show that compared to other methods, LTC enables the construction of highly reliable and longer contigs (5-12 clones before merging), the detection of "weak" connections in contigs and their "repair", and the elongation of contigs obtained by other assembly methods.</p

Life satisfaction and relative income: perceptions and evidence

Using a unique dataset we study both the actual and self-perceived relationship between subjective well-being and income comparisons against a wide range of potential comparison groups, enabling us to investigate a broader range of questions than in previous studies. In questions inserted into a 2008 module of the German-Socio Economic Panel Study we ask subjects to report (a) how their income compares to various groups, such a co-workers, friends, and neighbours, and (b) how important these income comparisons are to them. We find substantial gender differences, with income comparisons being much better predictors of subjective well-being in men than in women. Generic (same-gender) comparisons are the most important, followed by within profession comparisons. Once generic and within-profession comparisons are controlled for, income relative to neighbours has a negative coefficient, implying that living in a high-income neighbourhood increases happiness. The perceived importance of income comparisons is found to be uncorrelated with its actual relationship to subjective well-being, suggesting that people are unconscious of its real impact. Subjects who judge comparisons to be important are, however, significantly less happy than subjects who see income comparisons as unimportant. Finally, the marginal effect of relative income on subjective well-being does not depend on whether a subject is below or above the reference group income

Cost-benefit analysis of psychological therapy

At present six million people are suffering from clinical depression or anxiety disorders, but only a quarter of them are in treatment. NICE Guidelines prescribe the offer of evidence-based psychological therapy, but they are not implemented, due to lack of therapists within the NHS. We therefore estimate the economic costs and benefits of providing psychological therapy to people not now in treatment. The cost to the government would be fully covered by the savings in incapacity benefits and extra taxes that result from more people being able to work. On our estimates the cost could be recovered within two years – and certainly within five. And the benefits to the whole economy are greater still. This is not because we expect the extra therapy to be targeted especially at people with problems about work. It is because the cost of the therapy is so small (£750 in total), the recovery rates are so high (50%) and the cost of a person on IB is so large (£750 per month). These findings strongly reinforce the humanitarian case for implementing the NICE Guidelines. Current proposals for doing this would require some 8,000 extra psychological therapists within the NHS over the next six years

Infrastructure Spending in China Increases Trust in Local Government

Following the 2008/9 financial crisis, China instituted a 4 trillion RMB stimulus package that was spent mostly on infrastructure, with a particular impact at local level. The goal was to sustain economic growth and preserve social stability. We use the Asian Barometer surveys from shortly before and after the stimulus to examine its impact on public trust in government, and find a reversal of a previous downward trend and a substantial increase in trust in local government post stimulus. We consider a number of alternative explanations for this increase in trust, and conclude that the stimulus package is the most convincing explanation. Both perceptions of corruption and experience of corruption increased over the stimulus period. Given the strong negative correlation between corruption and trust, this implies that trust would have increased even further if the level of corruption had remained the same

Why Choice Lists Increase Risk Taking

Choice lists with random incentives are widely used for preference elicitation. It is commonly assumed that subjects choose the same option in each question as they would have if it were the only question, but recent findings challenge this assumption. We conduct a large sample experiment varying incentives and presentation independently, and examine choices both near and away from certainty. We consistently find more risk taking when a choice between a safe prize and a risky lottery is embedded in a choice list than when it is presented on its own.This difference remains when we inform subjects of the paid choice in advance, implying that isolation fails not because of the random incentives scheme, but simply because the choice appears in a list together with others. We conjecture that subjects are uncertain about their preferences, reduce this uncertainty through considering the choices that confront them, and make cautious decisions in the interim. Other conditions and non-choice data support this interpretation. Our results open up the possibility that preferences inferred from choice lists offer a better indication of informed preferences than preferences inferred from single choices