Measuring and understanding subjective well-being
By: John F. Helliwell, Christopher P. Barrington-Leigh
Contributors: Barrington-Leigh, Christopher P.; National Bureau of Economic Research
Series: NBER working paper series -- working paper 15887; Working paper series (National Bureau of Economic Research : Online) -- working paper no. 15887.
Publisher: National Bureau of Economic Research
Published: 2010
Place of publication: Cambridge, MA
Language: eng
Format: Electronic resource
Description: "Increasing attention is being paid in academic, policy, and public arenas to subjective measures of well-being.  This promising trend represents a shift towards measuring positive outcomes in psychology and greater realism in the study of economic behaviour.  After a general review of past and potential uses for subjective well-being data, and a discussion of why some economists have previously been sceptical of SWB data, we present global and Canadian examples from our own research to illustrate what can be learned.  Differences in subjective well-being will be shown to be large and sustained across individuals, communities, provinces and nations.  Although the patterns of subjective well-being are very different across Canada than across the world, we show that in both cases the differences can be fairly well accounted for by the same set of life circumstances.  Our examples of policy-relevant research findings include new accountings of the differences in individual-level SWB assessments around the world and across Canada.  These highlight the importance of social factors whose role has otherwise been hard to quantify in income-equivalent terms"--National Bureau of Economic Research web site.
Notes: Title from PDF file as viewed on 4/13/2010.

Includes bibliographical references.

Also available in print.

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Mode of access: World Wide Web.