The effect of smoking on individual well-being: a propensity score matching analysis based on nationwide surveys in Japan

Background: It is widely known that smokers tend to feel less satisfied than non-smokers with their jobs and life more generally. However, it is not easy to establish a causal relationship between smoking and individual well-being, because of shared associations with socioeconomic or demographic factors. This issue was largely avoided in the present study, which used propensity score matching methods to investigate whether smoking affects the extent to which individuals are satisfied with their job and other aspects of their life. Methods: Using a large-scale Japanese dataset, we first estimated propensity scores for smoking as a function of numerous socioeconomic and demographic factors. We then matched smokers to non-smokers on the basis of these. We subsequently estimated the average treatment effect, considering smoking as a treatment and smokers as the treated group. We used different matching methods to ascertain the robustness of any effects. Results: We found that smoking made both males and females unhappy, and that it reduced both the extent to which they were satisfied with multiple aspects of their lives (including their job, non-working activities, household's financial conditions, family life, friendships, residential area, health and physical conditions) and their level of self-rated health. Some of these effects differed between males and females. Conclusions: Our propensity score matching analyses identified smoking as having direct adverse effects on individual well-being.Smoking, Happiness, Job satisfaction, Self-rated Health, Propensity score matching

Happiness, self-rated health, and income inequality: Evidence from nationwide surveys in Japan

We examine how regional inequality affects happiness and self-rated health at an individual level by using micro data from nationwide surveys in Japan. Individuals who live in the area of high inequality tend to report themselves as both unhappy and unhealthy, even after controlling for various individual and regional characteristics and taking into account the correlation between the two subjective outcomes. We also investigate how their sensitivities to regional inequality change by key individual attributes. People with an unstable work status are most affected by inequality when assessing both happiness and health.happiness, self-rated health, income inequality

Regional income inequality and happiness: Evidence from Japan

We investigated how regional income inequality is associated with the individual assessment of happiness based on micro data from nationwide surveys in Japan. Our multilevel analysis using logit and ordered logit models confirmed that individuals who live in areas of high inequality tend to report themselves as less happy, even after controlling for various individual and regional factors. Notably, the fact that happiness depends on not only income but also income inequality indicates the importance of income redistribution for individual well-being. We also find that the association between regional inequality and happiness is not uniform across the different levels of perceived happiness. Moreover, the sensitivities of happiness to regional inequality differ substantially by key individual attributes such as gender, marital status, level of education, occupational status, and political views. Among others, an important finding for social policy is that those of unstable occupational status and those with a lower level of education are more sensitive to regional inequality. Given the fact that these people tend to be less happy than the others, this result points to the risk that regional inequality additionally reduces the well-being of those under unfavorable socioeconomic conditions.Happiness, income inequality, multilevel analysis, Japan

On the Properties of Language Classes Defined by Bounded Reaction Automata

Reaction automata are a formal model that has been introduced to investigate the computing powers of interactive behaviors of biochemical reactions([14]). Reaction automata are language acceptors with multiset rewriting mechanism whose basic frameworks are based on reaction systems introduced in [4]. In this paper we continue the investigation of reaction automata with a focus on the formal language theoretic properties of subclasses of reaction automata, called linearbounded reaction automata (LRAs) and exponentially-bounded reaction automata (ERAs). Besides LRAs, we newly introduce an extended model (denoted by lambda-LRAs) by allowing lambda-moves in the accepting process of reaction, and investigate the closure properties of language classes accepted by both LRAs and lambda-LRAs. Further, we establish new relationships of language classes accepted by LRAs and by ERAs with the Chomsky hierarchy. The main results include the following : (i) the class of languages accepted by lambda-LRAs forms an AFL with additional closure properties, (ii) any recursively enumerable language can be expressed as a homomorphic image of a language accepted by an LRA, (iii) the class of languages accepted by ERAs coincides with the class of context-sensitive languages.Comment: 23 pages with 3 figure

Lipase-catalyzed syntheses of sugar esters in non-aqueous media.

The lipase-catalyzed reaction is useful to obtain sugar esters with chemically defined structures and will contribute to the synthesis of sugar-based compounds by a chemo-enzymatic pathway. The synthesis of sugar esters in nonaqueous media has been attempted for a quarter century. To facilitate the reactions, they have been performed either in an organic solvent with/without a polar adjuvant or in an ionic liquid, or by using a hydrophobic sugar derivative. In this review, the following points are discussed: (1) various synthetic methods of sugar esters; (2) role of the solvents or adjuvants; and (3) improvement in the productivity

Child poverty as a determinant of life outcomes:Evidence from nationwide surveys in Japan

We attempt to examine the extent to which poverty in childhood adversely affects success in adulthood, using micro data from nationwide surveys in Japan and taking into account the recursive structure of life outcomes. We use retrospective assessments of income class at the age of 15, because longitudinal data on household income are not available. After controlling for its endogeneity, we confirm that children from poor families tend to have lower educational attainment, face higher poverty risks, and assess themselves as being less happy and as suffering from poorer health.Child poverty; Educational attainment; Poverty risk; Happiness; Self-rated health

Division of Household Labor and Marital Satisfaction in China, Japan, and Korea

In this study, we compare the association of marital satisfaction with the division of labor between husband and wife in Asia, based on Chinese, Japanese, and Korean General Social Surveys in 2006 (N = 2,346, 997, and 990, respectively). Results show that in all three countries, wives are less satisfied than husbands with marriage, mainly because wives do disproportionately more housework than husbands. Aside from this common gender difference, there are noticeable differences among the three countries. Chinese couples are relatively in favor of an egalitarian division of labor in terms of both market work and housework. Japanese couples are supportive of traditional specialization, with the wives flexibly shifting their efforts between market work and housework. Korean couples are under pressure from conflicts between the wife‘s labor force participation and the traditional division of labor in the household.Division of household labor, gender difference, marital satisfaction