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Happiness matters: the role of well-being in productivity

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  • Charles Henri DiMaria

    ()

  • Chiara Peroni

    ()

  • Francesco Sarracino

    ()

Abstract

This article is about the link between people’s subjective well-being, defined as an evaluation of one’s own life, and productivity. Our aim is to test the hypothesis that subjective well-being contributes to productivity using a two step approach: first, we establish whether subjectivewell-being can be a candidate variable to study Total Factor Productivity; second, we assess how much subjective well-being contributes to productivity at aggregate level through efficiency gains. We adopt Data Envelopment Analysis to compute total factor productivity and efficiency indices using European Social Survey and AMECO data for 20 European countries. Results show that subjective well-being is an input and not an output to production.

Suggested Citation

  • Charles Henri DiMaria & Chiara Peroni & Francesco Sarracino, 2014. "Happiness matters: the role of well-being in productivity," Department of Economics University of Siena 699, Department of Economics, University of Siena.
    • Handle: RePEc:usi:wpaper:699
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    productivity; subjective well-being; TFP; efficiency gains; life satisfaction; economic growth; DEA.;

    JEL classification:

    • E23 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Consumption, Saving, Production, Employment, and Investment - - - Production
    • I31 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Welfare, Well-Being, and Poverty - - - General Welfare, Well-Being
    • O47 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Growth and Aggregate Productivity - - - Empirical Studies of Economic Growth; Aggregate Productivity; Cross-Country Output Convergence

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