Building a Better Theory of Well-Being
60 Pages Posted: 8 Apr 2003
Date Written: March 2003
Abstract
What do social surveys of life cycle experience tell us about the determinants of subjective well-being? First, that the psychologists' setpoint model is wrong. Life events in the nonpecuniary domain, such as marriage, divorce, and physical disability, have a lasting effect on well-being, and do not simply deflect the average person temporarily above or below a setpoint given by genetics and personality. Second, mainstream economists' inference that in the pecuniary domain "more is better," based on revealed preference theory, is wrong. An increase in income, and thus in the goods at one's disposal, does not bring with it a lasting increase in well-being, because of the negative effect on utility of hedonic adaptation and social comparison. The utility anticipated ex ante from an increase in consumption turns out ex post to be less than expected, as one adapts to the new level of living, and as the living levels of others improve correspondingly.
A better theory of well-being builds on the evidence that adaptation and social comparison affect utility more in pecuniary than nonpecuniary domains. The failure of individuals to anticipate that these influences disproportionately undermine utility in the pecuniary domain leads to an excessive allocation of time to pecuniary goals at the expense of nonpecuniary goals, such as family life and health, and reduces well-being. There is need to devise policies that will yield better-informed individual preferences, and thereby increase individual and societal subjective well-being.
Keywords: Subjective Well-being, Living Level, Health, Marital Status, Aspirations
JEL Classification: D60, I10, I31, J12, Z13
Suggested Citation: Suggested Citation
Do you have negative results from your research you’d like to share?
Recommended Papers
-
By Ed Diener
-
What Can Economists Learn from Happiness Research?
By Bruno S. Frey and Alois Stutzer
-
Culture and Subjective Well-Being
By William Tov and Ed Diener
-
A Note on Unhappiness and Unemployment Duration
By Andrew Clark
-
Happiness, Economy and Institutions
By Bruno S. Frey and Alois Stutzer
-
Subjective Well-Being: Three Decades of Progress
By Ed Diener, Eunkook Suh, ...
-
Inequality and Happiness: Are Europeans and Americans Different?
By Alberto F. Alesina, Rafael Di Tella, ...