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Individual Welfare and Subjective Well-Being: Commentary Inspired by Sacks, Stevenson and Wolfers

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  • Hammond, Peter J.
  • Liberini, Federica
  • Proto, Eugenio

Abstract

Sacks, Stevenson and Wolfers (2010) question earlier results like Easterlin’s showing that long-run economic growth often fails to improve individuals’ average reports of their own subjective well-being (SWB). We use World Values Survey data to establish that the proportion of individuals reporting happiness level h, and whose income falls below any fixed threshold, always diminishes as h increases. The implied positive association between income and reported happiness suggests that it is possible in principle to construct multi-dimensional summary statistics based on reported SWB that could be used to evaluate economic policy.

Suggested Citation

  • Hammond, Peter J. & Liberini, Federica & Proto, Eugenio, 2011. "Individual Welfare and Subjective Well-Being: Commentary Inspired by Sacks, Stevenson and Wolfers," Economic Research Papers 270767, University of Warwick - Department of Economics.
    • Handle: RePEc:ags:uwarer:270767
    DOI: 10.22004/ag.econ.270767
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    Cited by:

    1. O'Donnell, Gus & Oswald, Andrew J., 2015. "National well-being policy and a weighted approach to human feelings," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 120(C), pages 59-70.
    2. Timothy N. Bond & Kevin Lang, 2019. "The Sad Truth about Happiness Scales," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 127(4), pages 1629-1640.
    3. Hammond, Peter J & Liberini, Federica & Proto, Eugenio, 2013. "Do Happier Britons Have More Income? First-Order Stochastic Dominance Relations," CAGE Online Working Paper Series 166, Competitive Advantage in the Global Economy (CAGE).
    4. Barbara Dluhosch & Daniel Horgos & Klaus Zimmermann, 2014. "Social Choice and Social Unemployment-Income Cleavages: New Insights from Happiness Research," Journal of Happiness Studies, Springer, vol. 15(6), pages 1513-1537, December.

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