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Is man doomed to progress?

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  • Senik, Claudia

Abstract

This paper is dedicated to the empirical exploration of the welfare effect of expectations and progress per se. Using ten waves of the Russian Longitudinal Monitoring Survey, a panel household survey rich in subjective variables, the analysis suggests that for a given total stock of inter-temporal consumption, agents are more satisfied with an increasing time-profile of consumption: they seem to have a strong “taste for improvement”.

Suggested Citation

  • Senik, Claudia, 2006. "Is man doomed to progress?," CEPREMAP Working Papers (Docweb) 0608, CEPREMAP.
  • Handle: RePEc:cpm:docweb:0608
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    More about this item

    Keywords

    expectations; growth; subjective happiness; adaptation; panel data;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • D31 - Microeconomics - - Distribution - - - Personal Income and Wealth Distribution
    • D9 - Microeconomics - - Micro-Based Behavioral Economics
    • I31 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Welfare, Well-Being, and Poverty - - - General Welfare, Well-Being
    • Z13 - Other Special Topics - - Cultural Economics - - - Economic Sociology; Economic Anthropology; Language; Social and Economic Stratification

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