Deaton, A. (2005). Measuring poverty in a growing world (or measuring growth in a poor world). Review of Economics and statistic

Deaton, A. (2005). Measuring poverty in a growing world (or measuring growth in a poor world). Review of Economics and statistics, 87(1), 1-19.

The extent to which growth reduces global poverty has been disputed for 30 years. Although there are better data than ever before, controversies are not resolved. A major problem is that consumption measured from household surveys, which is used to measure poverty, grows less rapidly than consumption measured in national accounts, in the world as …

Alesina, A., &La Ferrara, E. (2005). Preferences for redistribution in the land of opportunities. Journal of public Economics, 89(5-6), 897-931.

This paper explores how individual preferences for redistribution depend on future income prospects. In addition to estimating the impact of individuals’ socioeconomic background and of their subjective perceptions of future mobility, we employ panel data to construct ‘objective’ measures of expected gains and losses from redistribution for different categories of individuals. We find that such …

Graham, C. (2005). Insights on Development from the economics of happiness. The World Bank Research Observer, 20(2), 201-231.

The literature on the economics of happiness in developed economies finds discrepancies between reported measures of well-being and income measures. One is the so-called Easterlin paradox: that average happiness levels do not increase as countries grow wealthier. This article explores how that paradox—and survey research on reported well-being in general—can provide insights into the gaps …

Goldsmith, A. H., Veum, J. R., &William Jr, D. (1996). The impact of labor force history on self-esteem and its component parts, anxiety, alienation and depression.

Psychologists Erikson (1959), Jahoda (1979, 1981, 1982) and Warr (1987) have offered theories to explain how experiences such as joblessness may lead to a decline in mental health. Other psychologists, including Rotter (1966) and Rosenberg (1965), have designed and validated survey instruments capable of measuring various aspects of emotional health including self-esteem. Using such construct …

Riis, J., et al. (2005). Ignorance of Hedonic Adaptation to Hemodialysis: A Study Using Ecological Momentary Assessment.

Healthy people generally underestimate the self-reported well-being of people with disabilities and serious illnesses. The cause of this discrepancy is in dispute, and the present study provides evidence for 2 causes. First, healthy people fail to anticipate hedonic adaptation to poor health. Using an ecological momentary assessment measure of mood, the authors failed to find …

Van de Stadt, H., Kapteyn, A., &Van de Geer, S. (1985). The relativity of utility: Evidence from panel data. The review of Economics and Statistics, 179-187.

The paper addresses the question whether utility may be viewed as a completely relative concept. In a dynamic setting this means that one has to model both habit formation and utility interdependence. The resulting model contains unobservable variables and requires panel data to be estimated. Using the first two waves of an annual panel in …

Easterlin, R. A. (2000). The worldwide standard of living since 1800. Journal of Economic Perspectives, 14(1), 7-26.

By many measures a revolution in living conditions is sweeping the world. Most people today are better fed, clothed, and house than their predecessors two centuries ago. They are healthier, live longer, and are better educated. Women’s lives are less centered on reproduction, and political democracy has gained a foothold. Current international differences in a …

Clark, A. E., &Oswald, A. J. (1998). Comparison-concave utility and following behaviour in social and economic settings.

This paper describes a theory of rational emulation and deviance. It assumes that individuals care about relative position (or `status’), and constructs a model of decision-making in social and economic settings. The analysis shows why individuals who want to be different from others will, paradoxically, find it rational to imitate other people. The paper also …

Clark, A. E., &Oswald, A. J. (1996). Satisfaction and comparison income. Journal of public economics, 61(3), 359-381.

This paper attempts to test the hypothesis that utility depends on income relative to a ‘comparison’ or reference level. Using data on 5,000 British workers, it provides two findings. First, workers’ reported satisfaction levels are shown to be inversely related to their comparison wage rates. Second, holding income constant, satisfaction levels are shown to be …