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Happiness and Productivity

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Author Info

  • Oswald, Andrew J.

    (Department of Economics, University of Warwick)

  • Proto, Eugenio

    (Department of Economics, University of Warwick)

  • Sgroi, Daniel

    (Department of Economics, University of Warwick)

Abstract

Little is known by economists about how emotions affect productivity. To make persuasive progress, some way has to be found to assign people exogenously to different feelings. We design a randomized trial. In it, some subjects have their happiness levels increased, while others in a control group do not. We show that a rise in happiness leads to greater productivity in a paid piece-rate task. The effect is large; it can be replicated; it is not a reciprocity effect; and it is found equally among males and females. We discuss the implications for economics.

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Bibliographic Info

Paper provided by University of Warwick, Department of Economics in its series The Warwick Economics Research Paper Series (TWERPS) with number 882.

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Length: 44 pages
Date of creation: 2008
Date of revision:
Handle: RePEc:wrk:warwec:882

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Keywords: Labor productivity ; emotions ; well-being ; happiness ; positive affect ; experimental economics;

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References

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Blog mentions

As found by EconAcademics.org, the blog aggregator for Economics research:
  1. Are Happy People More Productive?
    by Ariel Goldring in Free Market Mojo on 2010-01-25 11:23:23
  2. Happiness, work & productivity
    by chris dillow in Stumbling and Mumbling on 2013-02-20 13:58:10
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