IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/awm/wpaper/12.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Socio-economic and psychological consequences of the Pandemic for the Great Elderly in Italy: How much is it worth investing in relationship as a factor preventing lonelines

Author

Listed:
  • Federico Comes

    (Department of Economics, University of Verona)

  • Martina Menon

    (Department of Economics, University of Verona)

  • Federico Perali

    (Department of Economics, University of Verona)

Abstract

In times of pandemic, according to the survey on the living conditions of the elderly and the quality of their relationships recently conducted by the research group of the REDESIGN project, the economic aspects have been significantly influenced especially for the elderly who live alone, objectively more exposed to the risks of the health emergency. From this point of view, the Italian welfare, which prefers the protection of the elderly, seems to have effectively mitigated the economic impact regardless of income and region of residence, but has shown limits in preventing and treating the intangible aspects related to the non-cognitive, affective and relational sphere of the great elderly, especially for the most fragile and lonely. In general, the willingness to pay is associated both with the need for relationships and with the ability to give, for example, on the part of those who are more sociable or place more trust in others, regardless of financial possibilities. The decision on how much to donate seems instead dominated by purely economic variables. The study estimated that the average level of willingness to pay of the elderly for social networks is 94 euros. This could generate potential funding of around €365 million that Italian communities can mobilise. As a lesson for the future, it will be important to understand how communities and philanthropic institutions of financial intermediation, such as community foundations, can foster the development of autonomous networks to improve the quality of life of the elderly and, at the same time, create the conditions to improve the prevention of situations at high risk to health.

Suggested Citation

  • Federico Comes & Martina Menon & Federico Perali, 2022. "Socio-economic and psychological consequences of the Pandemic for the Great Elderly in Italy: How much is it worth investing in relationship as a factor preventing lonelines," Working Papers 12, SITES.
    • Handle: RePEc:awm:wpaper:12
    Note: SITES Working Papers 12
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.sitesideas.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/Sites_wp12.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Easterlin, Richard A., 1995. "Will raising the incomes of all increase the happiness of all?," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 27(1), pages 35-47, June.
    2. Joseph Stiglitz & Amartya Sen & Jean-Paul Fitoussi, 2009. "The measurement of economic performance and social progress revisited: Reflections and Overview," Sciences Po publications 2009-33, Sciences Po.
    3. Satya R. Chakravarty, 2003. "A Generalized Human Development Index," Review of Development Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 7(1), pages 99-114, February.
    4. Richard C. Ready & Ståle Navrud & RW. Richard Dubourg, 2001. "How Do Respondents with Uncertain Willingness to Pay Answer Contingent Valuation Questions?," Land Economics, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 77(3), pages 315-326.
    5. repec:hal:wpspec:info:hdl:2441/5l6uh8ogmqildh09h4687h53k is not listed on IDEAS
    6. repec:hal:spmain:info:hdl:2441/5l6uh8ogmqildh09h4687h53k is not listed on IDEAS
    7. Welsh, Michael P. & Poe, Gregory L., 1998. "Elicitation Effects in Contingent Valuation: Comparisons to a Multiple Bounded Discrete Choice Approach," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 36(2), pages 170-185, September.
    8. Louise C. Hawkley & Mary Elizabeth Hughes & Linda J. Waite & Christopher M. Masi & Ronald A. Thisted & John T. Cacioppo, 2008. "From Social Structural Factors to Perceptions of Relationship Quality and Loneliness: The Chicago Health, Aging, and Social Relations Study," The Journals of Gerontology: Series B, The Gerontological Society of America, vol. 63(6), pages 375-384.
    9. Joseph E. Stiglitz & Amartya Sen & Jean-Paul Fitoussi, 2009. "The measurement of economic performance and social progress revisited," Documents de Travail de l'OFCE 2009-33, Observatoire Francais des Conjonctures Economiques (OFCE).
    10. Giuseppe Albanese & Guido de Blasio & Paolo Sestito, 2017. "Trust, risk and time preferences: evidence from survey data," International Review of Economics, Springer;Happiness Economics and Interpersonal Relations (HEIRS), vol. 64(4), pages 367-388, December.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Djankov, Simeon & Nikolova, Elena & Zilinsky, Jan, 2016. "The happiness gap in Eastern Europe," Journal of Comparative Economics, Elsevier, vol. 44(1), pages 108-124.
    2. Chen, Le-Yu & Oparina, Ekaterina & Powdthavee, Nattavudh & Srisuma, Sorawoot, 2022. "Robust Ranking of Happiness Outcomes: A Median Regression Perspective," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 200(C), pages 672-686.
    3. Kangmennaang, Joseph & Smale, Bryan & Elliott, Susan J., 2019. "‘When you think your neighbour's cooking pot is better than yours’: A mixed-methods exploration of inequality and wellbeing in Ghana," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 242(C).
    4. La, Binh Thanh & Lim, Steven & Cameron, Michael P. & Tran, Tuyen Quang & Nguyen, Minh Thi, 2021. "Absolute income, comparison income and subjective well-being in a transitional country: Panel evidence from Vietnamese household surveys," Economic Analysis and Policy, Elsevier, vol. 72(C), pages 368-385.
    5. Christopher J Boyce & Liam Delaney & Alex M Wood, 2018. "The Great Recession and subjective well-being: How did the life satisfaction of people living in the United Kingdom change following the financial crisis?," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 13(8), pages 1-17, August.
    6. Chen, Le-Yu & Oparina, Ekaterina & Powdthavee, Nattavudh & Srisuma, Sorawoot, 2019. "Have Econometric Analyses of Happiness Data Been Futile? A Simple Truth about Happiness Scales," IZA Discussion Papers 12152, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    7. Khusrav Gaibulloev & Gerel Oyun & Javed Younas, 2019. "Terrorism and subjective financial well-being: micro-level evidence from Pakistan," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 178(3), pages 493-512, March.
    8. Dolan, Paul & Metcalf, Robert, 2008. "Comparing willingness-to-pay and subjective well-being in the context of non-market goods," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 28504, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    9. Thunström, Linda & Nordström, Jonas & Shogren, Jason F., 2015. "Certainty and overconfidence in future preferences for food," Journal of Economic Psychology, Elsevier, vol. 51(C), pages 101-113.
    10. Espinoza-Delgado, José & Silber, Jacques, 2018. "Multi-dimensional poverty among adults in Central America and gender differences in the three I’s of poverty: Applying inequality sensitive poverty measures with ordinal variables," MPRA Paper 88750, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    11. Richard C. Ready & Patricia A. Champ & Jennifer L. Lawton, 2010. "Using Respondent Uncertainty to Mitigate Hypothetical Bias in a Stated Choice Experiment," Land Economics, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 86(2), pages 363-381.
    12. Vivien Fisch-Romito, 2021. "Embodied carbon dioxide emissions to provide high access levels to basic infrastructure around the world," Post-Print hal-03353919, HAL.
    13. Paolo Prosperi & Iuri Peri, 2014. "Concepts and methods for sustainability assessment: Insights from food security," RIVISTA DI STUDI SULLA SOSTENIBILITA', FrancoAngeli Editore, vol. 2014(1), pages 23-34.
    14. Nikolova, Milena & Graham, Carol, 2015. "In transit: The well-being of migrants from transition and post-transition countries," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 112(C), pages 164-186.
    15. Lina Martínez & Eduardo Lora & Andres David Espada, 2022. "The Consequences of the Pandemic for Subjective Well-Being: Data for Improving Policymaking," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(24), pages 1-20, December.
    16. Ribas, Aline & Lucena, André F.P. & Schaeffer, Roberto, 2017. "Bridging the energy divide and securing higher collective well-being in a climate-constrained world," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 108(C), pages 435-450.
    17. Bruno Emmanuel Ongo Nkoa & Jacques Simon Song, 2022. "Does Institutional Quality increase inequalities in Africa?," Journal of the Knowledge Economy, Springer;Portland International Center for Management of Engineering and Technology (PICMET), vol. 13(3), pages 1896-1927, September.
    18. Greco, Salvatore & Ishizaka, Alessio & Tasiou, Menelaos & Torrisi, Gianpiero, 2018. "σ-µ efficiency analysis: A new methodology for evaluating units through composite indices," MPRA Paper 83569, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    19. Nick Hanley & Bengt Kriström & Jason F. Shogren, 2009. "Coherent Arbitrariness: On Value Uncertainty for Environmental Goods," Land Economics, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 85(1), pages 41-50.
    20. Aistė Dirzytė & Ona Gražina Rakauskienė & Vaida Servetkienė, 2017. "Evaluation of resilience impact on socio-economic inequality," Entrepreneurship and Sustainability Issues, VsI Entrepreneurship and Sustainability Center, vol. 4(4), pages 489-501, June.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Willingness to pay; elderly people; loneliness; social network;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • I31 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Welfare, Well-Being, and Poverty - - - General Welfare, Well-Being
    • I14 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Health - - - Health and Inequality
    • D1 - Microeconomics - - Household Behavior

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:awm:wpaper:12. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: SITES's editorial board (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://sitesideas.org/ .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.