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Knowing what is good for you: Empirical analysis of personal preferences and the “objective good”

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Orsolya Lelkes

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Abstract

This paper aims to test empirically if certain frequently used measures of well-being, which are regarded as valuable properties of human life, are actually desired by people. In other words, it investigates whether the "expert judgments" in social science overlap with social consensus on what the "good life" is. The starting hypothesis is that there is an overlap between these two in the case of basic needs. For the analysis, individuals' self-reported life satisfaction is used as a proxy for "utility", based on survey data, which includes about 30 000 individuals from 21 different European countries. The results indicate that the commonly used measures of well-being - labour market situation, health, housing conditions and social relations - significantly influence people's satisfaction, ceteris paribus. Next, the stability of preferences is tested using Hungarian data from the 1990s. The results indicate that there was only very limited change in the relationship between life satisfaction and basic measures of well-being despite the landslide of societal and economic transformation.

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Paper provided by Centre for Analysis of Social Exclusion, LSE in its series CASE Papers with number 094.

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Date of creation: Mar 2005
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Handle: RePEc:cep:sticas:094

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Related research
Keywords: quality of life; capabilities; happiness; basic needs; economic transition;

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Find related papers by JEL classification:
D63 - Microeconomics - - Welfare Economics - - - Equity, Justice, Inequality, and Other Normative Criteria and Measurement
I31 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Welfare and Poverty - - - General Welfare
P36 - Economic Systems - - Socialist Institutions and Their Transitions - - - Consumer Economics; Health, Education, Welfare, and Poverty

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References listed on IDEAS
Please report citation or reference errors to , or , if you are the registered author of the cited work, log in to your RePEc Author Service profile, click on "citations" and make appropriate adjustments.:
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    Other versions:
  2. Andrew E. Clark & Yannis Georgellis, 2002. "Unemployment Alters the Set-Point for Life Satisfaction," Economics and Finance Discussion Papers 02-16, Economics and Finance Section, School of Social Sciences, Brunel University. [Downloadable!]
    Other versions:
  3. Matthew Rabin, 1998. "Psychology and Economics," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 36(1), pages 11-46, March. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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    Other versions:
  6. Kornai Janos, 1994. "Transformational Recession: The Main Causes," Journal of Comparative Economics, Elsevier, vol. 19(1), pages 39-63, August. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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    Other versions:
  9. Bruno S. Frey & Alois Stutzer, 2002. "What Can Economists Learn from Happiness Research?," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 40(2), pages 402-435, June.
    Other versions:
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  12. Bernd Hayo, 2004. "Happiness in Eastern Europe," Marburg Working Papers on Economics 200412, Philipps-Universität Marburg, Faculty of Business Administration and Economics, Department of Economics (Volkswirtschaftliche Abteilung). [Downloadable!]
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    Other versions:
  17. Ferrer-i-Carbonell, Ada, 2005. "Income and well-being: an empirical analysis of the comparison income effect," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 89(5-6), pages 997-1019, June. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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Cited by:
(explanations, Please report citation or reference errors to , or , if you are the registered author of the cited work, log in to your RePEc Author Service profile, click on "citations" and make appropriate adjustments.)

  1. Lelkes, Orsolya, 2008. "Happiness over the life cycle: exploring age-specific preferences," MPRA Paper 7302, University Library of Munich, Germany. [Downloadable!]
  2. Jan S. Kowalski & Axel J. Schaffer, 2005. "The Part-Time-Society's Activity and Mobility Patterns," ERSA conference papers ersa05p150, European Regional Science Association. [Downloadable!]
  3. Claudia Biancotti, 2006. "A Dual-Regime Utility Model for Poverty Analysis," Temi di discussione (Economic working papers) 603, Bank of Italy, Economic Research Department. [Downloadable!]
  4. Simon Christopher Moore, 2006. "The value of reducing fear: an analysis using the European Social Survey," Applied Economics, Taylor and Francis Journals, vol. 38(1), pages 115-117, January. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  5. Orsolya Lelkes, 2006. "Bernard van Praag, Ada Ferrer-i-Carbonell: Happiness quantified. A satisfaction calculus approach, Oxford University Press: Oxford, 2004," Journal of Economic Inequality, Springer, vol. 4(3), pages 391-395, December. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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