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Counting Happiness from the Individual Level to the Group Level

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  • Edsel Beja
  • David Yap

Abstract

A procedure for identifying the happy individuals in society is indispensable to efforts to align public policy with the needs of the citizenry. Individual self-reports on happiness, however, must first meet the dual requirements of cardinality and (at least) relative interpersonal comparability before they can be used in conjunction with a counting procedure to give a meaningful estimate of group level happiness. The paper demonstrates a count-based measure of group happiness that exhibits these desired qualities using data from the Philippines. Copyright Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht 2013

Suggested Citation

  • Edsel Beja & David Yap, 2013. "Counting Happiness from the Individual Level to the Group Level," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 114(2), pages 621-637, November.
    • Handle: RePEc:spr:soinre:v:114:y:2013:i:2:p:621-637
    DOI: 10.1007/s11205-012-0165-y
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    Cited by:

    1. Edsel L. Beja Jr., 2019. "Maximizing Versus Satisficing: Negative Correlation Between Maximizing Attitude and School Domain Satisfaction," The American Economist, Sage Publications, vol. 64(1), pages 95-101, March.
    2. Edsel Beja, 2015. "The Focusing Illusion and Happiness: Evidence Using College Basketball Championship," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 121(3), pages 873-885, April.
    3. Beja, Edsel Jr., 2019. "Consumer Expectations Survey and Quarterly Social Weather Survey: Evidence of Convergent Validity and Causality," MPRA Paper 101074, University Library of Munich, Germany.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Counting; Individual; Group; Happiness;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • I30 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Welfare, Well-Being, and Poverty - - - General
    • C40 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Econometric and Statistical Methods: Special Topics - - - General
    • I00 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - General - - - General
    • D60 - Microeconomics - - Welfare Economics - - - General
    • C80 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Data Collection and Data Estimation Methodology; Computer Programs - - - General

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