Martin GUZI martin.guzi@econ.muni.cz In pursuit of happiness and job satisfaction Week 1 Applied Research in Public Policy Making Fall 2024 World Book of Happiness: Amazon.co.uk: Leo Bormans, Miriam Akhtar ... The Little Book of Lykke - Wiking Meik How's Life in 2020? The Book of Joy by Dalai Lama | 9781786330444 | Booktopia Can We Be Happier?: Evidence and Ethics (Pelican Books) by [Layard, Richard] http://happyplanetindex.org/ https://www.ted.com/talks/nic_marks_the_happy_planet_index The Happy Planet Index is a measure of sustainable wellbeing. HPI reflects how efficiently residents of different countries are using environmental resources to lead long, happy lives. 1.Wellbeing (Gallup World Poll) 2.Life expectancy 3.Inequality of 1) and 2) 4.Ecological Footprint • http://www.oecdbetterlifeindex.org/ Smiling frequency Smiling with the eyes (“unfakeable smile”) Ratings of one’s happiness made by friends Frequent verbal expressions of positive emotions Sociability and extraversion Sleep quality Happiness of close relatives Self-reported health High income, and high income rank in a reference group Active involvement in religion Recent positive changes of circumstances (increased income, marriage) Sources: Diener and Suh (1999), Layard (2005) and Frey and Stutzer (2002). Correlates of High Life Satisfaction and Happiness The Brain Responses to Two Pictures (MRI Scan) Source: Richard Davidson, University of Wisconsin The measure of well-being •“How satisfied are you with your life?” •“All things considered, how satisfied are you with your life as a whole these days? Using this card on which 1 means you are “completely dissatisfied” and 10 means you are “completely satisfied” where would you put your satisfaction with life as a whole?” •“Taking all things together, how satisfied are you with your life as a whole these days? Are you very satisfied, satisfied, not very satisfied, not at all satisfied?” •Data reveals: Surveys asking people about life satisfaction and happiness do measure subjective well-being with reasonable accuracy. Cantril’s Ladder •Please imagine a ladder with steps numbered from 0 at the bottom to 10 at the top. Suppose we say that the top of the ladder represents the best possible life for you and the bottom of the ladder represents the worst possible life for you. If the top step is 10 and the bottom step is 0, on which step of the ladder do you feel you personally stand at the present time? Quality of life ladder. Notes: Derived from Cantril's self-anchoring ladder [50]. An error resulted in 8 rungs being presented in the paper-based version whereas 10 rungs were presented in the computer version. To remedy this, we rescaled the QOL-ladder for the computer- and paper-based versions to their common denominator by multiplying the computer-based version of the QOL-ladder by 0.8 and rounding the resulting scores to zero decimals. Named after Albert Hadley Cantril (1906-1969), who developed and used it in surveys. simplicity is a virtue: no other measure of subjective wellbeing has been so widely used in a more or less stable form over such a long period of time. Cantril’s Ladder provides single, numerical data points. And it has a ring of authenticity, of old wisdom. Just as Cantril intended, its assumptions are concealed beneath a deferral to the individual of whom it is asked. Cantril’s Ladder Quality of life ladder. Notes: Derived from Cantril's self-anchoring ladder [50]. An error resulted in 8 rungs being presented in the paper-based version whereas 10 rungs were presented in the computer version. To remedy this, we rescaled the QOL-ladder for the computer- and paper-based versions to their common denominator by multiplying the computer-based version of the QOL-ladder by 0.8 and rounding the resulting scores to zero decimals. Named after Albert Hadley Cantril (1906-1969), who developed and used it in surveys. Figure 5. Cantril’s Ladder, as illustrated in Pattern of Human Concerns (Cantril 1965:22–23). simplicity is a virtue: no other measure of subjective wellbeing has been so widely used in a more or less stable form over such a long period of time. Cantril’s Ladder provides single, numerical data points. And it has a ring of authenticity, of old wisdom. Just as Cantril intended, its assumptions are concealed beneath a deferral to the individual of whom it is asked. Figure 1: Average Cantril’s Ladder scores over the period 2012–2014 (from World Happiness Report 2015). Data: Gallup World Poll •Africa’s History of Depressed Happiness •There is a strong negative association between happiness and lived poverty. •Poor infrastructure •High religiosity •Optimist future life evaluations • • • • A close up of a map Description automatically generated https://vemaps.com/europe-facts/eu-facts-02 18 • Are objective and subjective data on quality-of-life correlated? •1.3 million randomly sampled Americans 2005 to 2008 •Quality of life is based on data on Precipitation, Humidity, Heating Degree Days, Cooling Degree Days, Wind Speed, Sunshine, Coast, Inland Water, Federal Land, Visitors to National Parks, Visitors to State Parks, Number of hazardous waste sites Environmental Regulation Leniency, Commuting Time, Violent Crime Rate, Air Quality-Ozone, Air Quality-Carbon Monoxide, Student-teacher ratio, State and local taxes on property, income and sales and other, State and local expenditures on higher education, public welfare, highways, and corrections, Cost-of-living US_map_-_states-fr Also the self-reported measures correlate with certain physiological states (brain activty) But empirical results differ depending on what outcome measure is used e.g see the Borooah paper on the reading list self-assessed happiness question v. usage of tranquilisers and antidepressants v. thoughts of self-harm (inc suicide) Across US states: • There is a match between life-satisfaction scores (subjective data) and the quality of life calculated using (only) non-subjective data. • • Big data as a complement to survey-based well-being measures • Panel A of Figure 2.3 shows the dynamics for the four well-being measures collected by the ONS, reported separately for male and female respondents. For both genders, there is a ranking of effects, with life worthwhile being least affected, followed by life satisfaction, happiness, and anxiety. For both emotions- happiness yesterday and anxiety yesterday - the effects were largest during the lockdown Q2, and largely returned to baseline in Q3, when cases and fatalities seemed to be in check and restrictions were being lifted. The drops in life satisfaction and happiness, and the increases in anxiety, in Q2 were significantly greater for women than men, with the gender gap disappearing in Q3. A close up of a map Description automatically generated The data show that richer people are happier and healthier. • gold3 What about money and happiness? •The data show that richer people are happier and healthier. • gold3 A close up of a map Description automatically generated 26 In summary •Cross-country analysis: positive relation between Life Satisfaction and GDP per capita. •Cross-section and panel analysis based on individual data: strong relation between individual income and well-being. •Aggregate time-series: no correlation between Life Satisfaction and GDP per capita. •The Easterlin Paradox is related to the time-dimension. •Microeconomics of human well-being Regression equations Subjective well-being = f(Age, gender, education level, income, marital status, friendship network, region, year, ….) Big effects • Unemployment • Divorce • Marriage • Bereavement (the death or loss of a loved one) • Friendship networks • Health • Children • •Important life events such as marriage or divorce do affect our happiness, but have surprisingly little long-term impact. The evidence suggests that people tend to adapt to changes. m_wid0 Note: Research follows the same people over time. Divorce (eventually) makes people happier m_div0 Happiness and children f_birth0 A close up of a map Description automatically generated But people do not seem to adapt to joblessness • m_unem0 The evidence suggests that when a person is made unemployed: •20% of the fall in mental well-being is due to the decline in income •80% is due to non-pecuniary things (loss of self-esteem, status..). The effects of the day of the week on subjective well-being among people Sundays are found to be the bluest day Alpaslan Akay and Peter Martinsson, 2009 “Sundays Are Blue: Aren’t They? The Day-of-the-Week Effect on Subjective Well-Being and Socio-Economic Status” Intriguing life cycle pattern of well-being • https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VKTXSBS4Ok8 • The latest UK government data (Sample: 100,000 Britons) Blanchflower-Oswald estimates Sleeping problems •Sleeping problems are a marker of internal mental distress • The hill-shaped pattern of suicide Middle age population has at least two times higher risk relative to teenagers C:\Users\AhmedKhaledYassin\Documents\Economics\PDM and Extra\Suicide Project\WHO underlying data\Editing data\Results\OECD Age Bar Graphs\png\England & Wales.png C:\Users\AhmedKhaledYassin\Documents\Economics\PDM and Extra\Suicide Project\WHO underlying data\Editing data\Results\OECD Age Bar Graphs\png\USA.png The Relationship Between the Probability of Antidepressant Use and Age (European nations) David G.Blanchflower and Andrew J.Oswald (2016) Antidepressants and age: A new form of evidence for U-shaped well-being through life The scientific evidence for a midlife crisis •There really is a midlife low •It seems to happen equally in men and women •It is scientifically unexplained •There is a possibility that it is somehow biological (research with apes). • • A fundamental paradox •People reach peak earnings around the age of 50, with almost not illness, and this is the richest (healthiest & safest) era in history. • Job satisfation • Day Reconstruction Method (DRM) Alternative approach •A study by Daniel Kahneman and his colleagues on 1,000 working women in Texas (see Kahneman et al., 2004) • •These women were asked to divide the previous day into 15 episodes. They were then asked what they were doing in each episode, and who were they doing it with, and how they felt during each episodes. • •Data on people’s emotional expriences at various times of the day • • Kahneman, Krueger, Schkade, Schwarz and Stone (2004) The Day Reconstruction Method combines elements of experience sampling and time diaries, and is designed specifically to facilitate accurate emotional recall. Respondents are first asked to fill out a diary summarizing episodes that occurred in the preceding day. Next they describe each episode by indicating: when the episode began and ended; what they were doing (by selecting activities from a provided list); where they were; and with whom they were interacting. To ascertain how they felt during each episode in regards to selected affective dimensions, respondents were asked to report the intensity of their feelings along nine categories on a scale from 0 (“Not at all”) to 6 (“Very Much”). The affective categories were specified by descriptors, mostly adjectives, such as happy, worried and angry. The anchor, “Not at all,” is a natural zero point that is likely to have a common meaning across respondents for these descriptors. Happiness in Different Activities Happiness index is the average of three positive adjectives (happy, warm/friendly, enjoying myself) less the average of six negative adjectives (frustrated/annoyed, depressed/blue, hassled/pushed around, angry/hostile, worried/anxious, criticized/put down). All of the adjectives are reported on a 0 to 6 scale, ranging from 0 “not at all” to 6 “very much.” Sample consists of one day in the life of 909 employed women in Texas. Activity Time spent Happiness Index (hours) Intimate relations 0.23 4.83 Socializing after work 1.14 4.15 Relaxing 2.17 3.96 Dinner 0.81 3.94 Lunch 0.57 3.91 Exercising 0.22 3.85 Praying/worship 0.45 3.78 Socializing at work 1.12 3.78 Watching TV 2.19 3.65 Phone at home 0.93 3.52 Napping 0.89 3.35 Cooking 1.15 3.27 Shopping 0.41 3.23 Computer (non-work) 0.51 3.22 Housework 1.12 2.99 Childcare 1.1 2.99 Evening commute 0.61 2.77 Working 6.89 2.68 Morning commute 0.47 2.09 Happiness while Spending Time with Different People The average reported feelings across 1,000 people correspond well with activities predicted to be good for us, as well as activities predicted to be bad for us •Literature identifies that long working hours, irregular working schedules and long work commutes have strong detrimental effects on overall worker life quality. •Workers largely underestimate the negative effects of commuting on the quality of their life when making decisions about commuting •Job characteristics such as occupation prestige and a proper skill match have a positive effect on life satisfaction and job satisfaction. •Past unemployment experience often has a persistent negative effect on life satisfaction. Overview of well-being research findings: •(1) Well-being involves more than happy feelings •(2) Well-being can be validly measured •(3) Income influences well-being, up to a point •(4) High quality relationships are essential for well-being •(5) Genes and personality influence well-being •(6) People adapt to many circumstances, but it takes time •(7) Culture and society influence well-being •(8) There are important benefits of experiencing well-being beyond feeling good (e.g. health, longevity, career success) The broader message for today •Policy may need to concentrate on non-materialistic goals •We should measure what people care about. •Design policies that will raise people happiness and mental health. https://www.stats.govt.nz/information-releases/wellbeing-statistics-september-2020-quarter https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/wellbeing