Download or read book Behavioral Economics Happiness Surveys and Public Policy written by Matthew D. Adler and published by . This book was released on 2016 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Two important developments in recent policy analysis are behavioral economics and subjective-well-being (SWB) surveys. What is the connection between them? Some have suggested that behavioral economics strengthens the case for SWB surveys as a central policy tool, e.g., in the form of SWB-based cost-benefit analysis. This Article reaches a different conclusion. Behavioral economics shows that individuals in their day-to-day, “System 1” behavior are not EU-rational -- that they often fail to comply with the norms of rationality set forth by expected utility (EU) theory. Consider now that the standard preference-based view of individual well-being looks to individuals' rational preferences. If the findings of behavioral economics are correct, an individual's answer to a question such as “How satisfied are you with your life?” is not going to tell us much about her rational (EU compliant) preferences. Behavioral economics, by highlighting widespread failures of EU rationality, might actually argue for an objective good (non-preference-based) view of well-being. However, (except in the limiting case of an objective-good view positing a single mentalistic good, happiness) SWB surveys won't be strong evidence of well-being in the objective-good sense. In short, SWB surveys are no “magic cure” for the genuine difficulties in inferring rational preferences and measuring well-being underscored by behavioral economics.
Download or read book Policies for Happiness written by Stefano Bartolini and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2016-03-11 with total page 352 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In recent years, debates on the economics of happiness have shown that, over the long-term, well-being is influenced more by social and personal relationships than by income. This evidence challenges the traditional economic policy paradigm that has emphasized income as the primary determinant of well-being. This volume brings together contributions from leading scholars to ask: What should be done to improve the quality of people's lives? Can economic and social changes be made which enhance well-being? What policies are required? How do policies for well-being differ from traditional ones targeted on redistribution, the correction of market inefficiencies, and growth? Are there dimensions of well-being that have been neglected by traditional policies? Is happiness a meaningful policy target? The volume presents reflections and proposals which constitute a first step towards answering these questions.
Download or read book Happiness and Public Policy written by Lok Sang Ho and published by Springer. This book was released on 2006-08-25 with total page 269 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Happiness is a private matter and individual pursuit; however, public policy does have an important role and can contribute much through various enabling means. This volume discusses the determinants of happiness and presents case studies of how public policy can help promote happiness.
Download or read book Happiness Economics and Politics written by Amitava Krishna Dutt and published by Edward Elgar Publishing. This book was released on 2009-01-01 with total page 373 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: For those already drawn by the allure of happiness studies, Dutt and Radcliff here provide a rich tour of the frontier in the field. And for curmudgeons, this work goes far to defuse the skeptical reflex. It is subtle, intelligent, wide-ranging, informative and even readable throughout. James K. Galbraith, The University of Texas at Austin, US This timely and important book presents a unique study of happiness from both economic and political perspectives. It offers an overview of contemporary research on the emergent field of happiness studies and contains contributions by some of the leading figures in the field. General issues such as the history and conceptualization of happiness are explored, and the underpinning theories and empirics analyzed. The ways in which economic and political factors both separately and interactively affect the quality of human life are examined, illustrating the importance of a self-consciously multi-disciplinary approach to the field. In particular, the effects of consumption, income growth, inequality, discrimination, democracy, the nature of government policies, and labor organization on happiness are scrutinized. In conclusion, the contributors prescribe what can and should be done at individual and societal levels to improve human well-being and happiness. This wide-ranging and interdisciplinary book makes a unique contribution to the literature. As such, it will prove a fascinating read for students and scholars of economics, political science, psychology, sociology, and of course, to those with a special interest in the analysis of happiness and human well-being.
Download or read book Happiness Behavioral Economics and Public Policy written by Arik Levinson and published by . This book was released on 2013 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The economics of "happiness" shares a feature with behavioral economics that raises questions about its usefulness in public policy analysis. What happiness economists call "habituation" refers to the fact that people's reported well-being reverts to a base level, even after major life events such as a disabling injury or winning the lottery. What behavioral economists call "projection bias" refers to the fact that people systematically mistake current circumstances for permanence, buying too much food if shopping while hungry for example. Habituation means happiness does not react to long-term changes, and projection bias means happiness over-reacts to temporary changes. I demonstrate this outcome by combining responses to happiness questions with information about air quality and weather on the day and in the place where those questions were asked. The current day's air quality affects happiness while the local annual average does not. Interpreted literally, either the value of air quality is not measurable using the happiness approach or air quality has no value. Interpreted more generously, projection bias saves happiness economics from habituation, enabling its use in public policy.
Download or read book Behavioural Public Policy written by Adam Oliver and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2013-10-24 with total page 252 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In this accessible collection, leading academic economists, psychologists and philosophers apply behavioural economic findings to practical policy concerns.
Download or read book Happiness Economics and Public Policy written by Helen Johns (M. Sc.) and published by . This book was released on 2007 with total page 132 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book contains commentaries by Samuel Brittan and Melanie Powell. In Happiness, Economics and Public Policy, Helen Johns and Paul Ormerod analyse the economic research that underlies politicians' growing preoccupation with measures of 'well-being'. In a lucid and compelling analysis, written for economists and non-economists alike, the authors find that happiness research cannot be used to justify government intervention in the way its proponents suggest.Those who wish governments to take into account measures of well-being when setting policy often point to the fact that increases in income have not led to increases in measured happiness, and thus governments should concentrate on redistribution and improving the quality of life, rather than on allowing people to benefit from economic growth.
Download or read book Handbook of Behavioral Economics Foundations and Applications 1 written by and published by Elsevier. This book was released on 2018-09-27 with total page 748 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Handbook of Behavioral Economics: Foundations and Applications presents the concepts and tools of behavioral economics. Its authors are all economists who share a belief that the objective of behavioral economics is to enrich, rather than to destroy or replace, standard economics. They provide authoritative perspectives on the value to economic inquiry of insights gained from psychology. Specific chapters in this first volume cover reference-dependent preferences, asset markets, household finance, corporate finance, public economics, industrial organization, and structural behavioural economics. This Handbook provides authoritative summaries by experts in respective subfields regarding where behavioral economics has been; what it has so far accomplished; and its promise for the future. This taking-stock is just what Behavioral Economics needs at this stage of its so-far successful career. Helps academic and non-academic economists understand recent, rapid changes in theoretical and empirical advances within behavioral economics Designed for economists already convinced of the benefits of behavioral economics and mainstream economists who feel threatened by new developments in behavioral economics Written for those who wish to become quickly acquainted with behavioral economics
Download or read book Policy and Choice written by William J. Congdon and published by Brookings Institution Press. This book was released on 2011 with total page 260 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Argues that public finance--the study of the government's role in economics--should incorporate principles from behavior economics and other branches of psychology.
Download or read book Psychology and Behavioral Economics written by Kai Ruggeri and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2021-09-21 with total page 481 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Psychology and Behavioral Economics offers an expert introduction to how psychology can be applied to a range of public policy areas. It examines the impact of psychological research for public policymaking in economic, financial, and consumer sectors; in education, healthcare, and the workplace; for energy and the environment; and in communications. Your energy bills show you how much you use compared to the average household in your area. Your doctor sends you a text message reminder when your appointment is coming up. Your bank gives you three choices for how much to pay off on your credit card each month. Wherever you look, there has been a rapid increase in the importance we place on understanding real human behaviors in everyday decisions, and these behavioral insights are now regularly used to influence everything from how companies recruit employees through to large-scale public policy and government regulation. But what is the actual evidence behind these tactics, and how did psychology become such a major player in economics? Answering these questions and more, this team of authors, working across both academia and government, present this fully revised and updated reworking of Behavioral Insights for Public Policy. This update covers everything from how policy was historically developed, to major research in human behavior and social psychology, to key moments that brought behavioral sciences to the forefront of public policy. Featuring over 100 empirical examples of how behavioral insights are being used to address some of the most critical challenges faced globally, the book covers key topics such as evidence-based policy, a brief history of behavioral and decision sciences, behavioral economics, and policy evaluation, all illustrated throughout with lively case studies. Including end-of-chapter questions, a glossary, and key concept boxes to aid retention, as well as a new chapter revealing the work of the Canadian government’s behavioral insights unit, this is the perfect textbook for students of psychology, economics, public health, education, and organizational sciences, as well as public policy professionals looking for fresh insight into the underlying theory and practical applications in a range of public policy areas.
Download or read book Subjective Well Being written by Panel on Measuring Subjective Well-Being in a Policy-Relevant Framework and published by National Academies Press. This book was released on 2014-01-01 with total page 148 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Subjective well-being refers to how people experience and evaluate their lives and specific domains and activities in their lives. This information has already proven valuable to researchers, who have produced insights about the emotional states and experiences of people belonging to different groups, engaged in different activities, at different points in the life course, and involved in different family and community structures. Research has also revealed relationships between people's self-reported, subjectively assessed states and their behavior and decisions. Research on subjective well-being has been ongoing for decades, providing new information about the human condition. During the past decade, interest in the topic among policy makers, national statistical offices, academic researchers, the media, and the public has increased markedly because of its potential for shedding light on the economic, social, and health conditions of populations and for informing policy decisions across these domains. Subjective Well-Being: Measuring Happiness, Suffering, and Other Dimensions of Experience explores the use of this measure in population surveys. This report reviews the current state of research and evaluates methods for the measurement. In this report, a range of potential experienced well-being data applications are cited, from cost-benefit studies of health care delivery to commuting and transportation planning, environmental valuation, and outdoor recreation resource monitoring, and even to assessment of end-of-life treatment options. Subjective Well-Being finds that, whether used to assess the consequence of people's situations and policies that might affect them or to explore determinants of outcomes, contextual and covariate data are needed alongside the subjective well-being measures. This report offers guidance about adopting subjective well-being measures in official government surveys to inform social and economic policies and considers whether research has advanced to a point which warrants the federal government collecting data that allow aspects of the population's subjective well-being to be tracked and associated with changing conditions.
Download or read book The Pursuit of Happiness written by Carol Graham and published by Brookings Institution Press. This book was released on 2012 with total page 178 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In The Pursuit of Happiness, the latest addition to the Brookings FOCUS series, Carol Graham explores what we know about the determinants of happiness, acrossand within countries at different stages of development. She then takes a look at just what we can do with that new knowledge and clearly presents both the promise and thepotential pitfalls of injecting the "economics of happiness" into public policymaking. This burgeoning field, largely a product of collaboration between economists and psychologists, is gaining great currency worldwide. One of a handful of pioneers to studythis topic a mere decade ago, Graham is understandably excited about how far the concept has come and its possible utility in the future. The British, French, and Braziliangovernments already have introduced happiness metrics into their benchmarks of national progress, and the U.S. government could follow suit. But "happiness" as a yardstick to help measure a nation's well-being is still a relatively new approach, and many questions remain unanswered. The Pursuit of Happiness spotlights the innovative contributions of happiness research to the dismal science. But it also raises a cautionary note about the issues that stillneed to be addressed before policymakers can make best use of them. An effective definition of well-being that goes beyond measuring income —the Gross National Productapproach —could very well lead to improved understanding of poverty and economic welfare. But the question remains: how best to measure and quantify happiness? While scholars have developed rigorous measures of well-being that can be included in our statistics —as the British are already doing —to what degree should we use such metrics to shape and evaluate policy, particularly in assessing development outcomes? Graham considers a number of unanswered questions, such as whether policy should be more concerned with increasing day-to-day contentment or with providing greater opportunity to build a fulfilling life. Other issues include whether we care more about the happiness of today's citizens or that of future generations. Policies such as reducing our fiscal deficits or reforming our health care system, for example, typically require sacrificing current consumption and immediate well-being for better long-run outcomes. Another is whether policy should focus on reducing misery or raising general levels ofwell-being beyond their relatively high levels, in the same way that reducing poverty is only one choice among many objectives in our macroeconomic policy. Employing the new metrics without attention to these questions could produce mistakes that might undermine the long-term prospects for a truly meaningful economics of well-being. Despite this cautionary note, Graham points out that it is surely a positive development that some of our public attention is going to better understanding and enhancing the well-being of our citizens, rather than emphasizing the rootsof their divide.
Download or read book Behavioral Economics Policy Impact and Future Directions written by National Academies Of Sciences Engineeri and published by National Academies Press. This book was released on 2024-01-20 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Behavioral economics - a field based in collaborations among economists and psychologists - focuses on integrating a nuanced understanding of behavior into models of decision-making. Since the mid-20th century, this growing field has produced research in numerous domains and has influenced policymaking, research, and marketing. However, little has been done to assess these contributions and review evidence of their use in the policy arena. Behavioral Economics: Policy Impact and Future Directions examines the evidence for behavioral economics and its application in six public policy domains: health, retirement benefits, climate change, social safety net benefits, climate change, education, and criminal justice. The report concludes that the principles of behavioral economics are indispensable for the design of policy and recommends integrating behavioral specialists into policy development within government units. In addition, the report calls for strengthening research methodology and identifies research priorities for building on the accomplishments of the field to date.
Download or read book Behavioral Economics and Healthy Behaviors written by Yaniv Hanoch and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2017-05-18 with total page 345 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The field of behavioural economics can tell us a great deal about cognitive bias and unconscious decision-making, challenging the orthodox economic model whereby consumers make rational and informed choices. But it is in the arena of health that it perhaps offers individuals and governments the most value. In this important new book, the most pernicious health issues we face today are examined through a behavioral economic lens. It provides an essential and timely overview of how this growing field of study can reframe and offer solutions to some of the biggest health issues of our age. The book opens with an overview of the core theoretical concepts, after which each chapter assesses how behavioral economic research and practice can inform public policy across a range of health issues. Including chapters on tobacco, alcohol and drug use, physical activity, dietary intake, cancer screening and sexual health, the book integrates the key insights from the field to both developed and developing nations. Also asking important ethical questions around paternalism and informed choice, this book will be essential reading for students and researchers across psychology, economics and business and management, as well as public health professionals wishing for a concise overview of the role behavioral economics can potentially play in allowing people to live healthier lives.
Download or read book Happiness written by Bent Greve and published by Taylor & Francis. This book was released on 2023-06-29 with total page 130 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This fully revised and updated edition of Happiness provides an accessible introduction to the concept of happiness and how it can be applied to public policy in order to help citizens achieve the good life. Countries around the globe want to ensure the best for their citizens. They want them to be happy, have a good life and improve their well-being. It follows that, whilst happiness is based upon individuals’ subjective perception of their own situation, it is important to understand the concept of happiness in order to form policies that might help individuals to achieve what they believe will make them happier. Applying approaches from disciplines across the social sciences, this book explores varying notions of happiness and how these can be applied to create a theoretical understanding of happiness as a concept. The book then demonstrates how the concept of happiness can be used to analyse social policy in welfare states in areas including work, health and migration, as well as to evaluate everyday life and social relationships. This book will be essential reading for students and instructors in a range of subjects in the humanities and social sciences with an interest in the concept of happiness and/or welfare states.
Download or read book An Economist s Lessons on Happiness written by Richard A. Easterlin and published by Springer Nature. This book was released on 2021-03-01 with total page 184 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Once called the “dismal science,” economics now offers prescriptions for improving people’s happiness. In this book Richard Easterlin, the “father of happiness economics,” draws on a half-century of his own research and that conducted by fellow economists and psychologists to answer in plain language questions like: Can happiness be measured? Will more money make me happier? What about finding a partner? Getting married? Having a baby? More exercise? Does religion help? Who is happier—women or men, young or old, rich or poor? How does happiness change as we go through different stages of life? Public policy is also in the mix: Can the government increase people’s happiness? Should the government increase their happiness? Which countries are the happiest and why? Does a country need to be rich to be happy? Does economic growth improve the human lot? Some of the answers are surprising (no, more money won’t do the trick; neither will economic growth; babies are a mixed blessing!), but they are all based on reason and well-vetted evidence from the fields of economics and psychology. In closing, Easterlin traces the genesis of the ongoing “Happiness Revolution” and considers its implications for people’s lives down the road.
Download or read book Happiness and Economic Growth written by Andrew E. Clark and published by Oxford University Press, USA. This book was released on 2014 with total page 305 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Analyses the relationship between income and subjective well-being, and in particular in the context of developing countries. Several chapters focus on China and underline how the rise in unemployment and income inequality has undermined the well-being effects of economic development.
