[PDF] Explaining Happiness Trends In Europe eBook

Author : Richard A. Easterlin
Publisher :
Page : 0 pages
File Size : 32,47 MB
Release : 2023
Category :
ISBN :

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In Europe differences among countries in the overall change in happiness since the early 1980s have been due chiefly to the generosity of welfare state programs - increasing happiness going with increasing generosity and declining happiness with declining generosity. This is the principal conclusion from a time series study of ten Northern, Western, and Southern European countries with the requisite data. In the present study cross-section analysis of recent data gives a misleading impression that economic growth, social capital, and / or quality of the environment are driving happiness trends, but in the long-term time-series data these variables have no relation to happiness. Significance: Over the past five decades happiness has emerged as a subject of social science research and a potential goal of public policy. But how can a country's happiness be increased? On this, there is a conflict between a number of policy alternatives - promote economic growth, increase social capital, improve the environment, expand welfare state programs. Each of these has point-of-time (cross-section) evidence supporting its claim, but there are very few long-term time-series studies. This article presents newly available time-series evidence that supports the importance of welfare state policies.

Author : John F. Helliwell
Publisher :
Page : 172 pages
File Size : 50,53 MB
Release : 2018
Category : Happiness
ISBN : 9780996851367

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The World Happiness Report reviews levels of happiness across developed and developing nations, and presents ranking tables on national and regional happiness.

Author : Danny Dorling
Publisher :
Page : 192 pages
File Size : 22,31 MB
Release : 2020-07-31
Category :
ISBN : 9781788212151

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What is it about Finland that makes the country so successful and seemingly such a great place to live? Danny Dorling and Annika Koljonen explore what we might learn from Finnish success and what they might usefully learn from us.

Author : Carol Graham
Publisher : OUP Oxford
Page : 272 pages
File Size : 29,24 MB
Release : 2009-12-17
Category : Political Science
ISBN : 019160948X

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For centuries the pursuit of happiness was the preserve of either the philosopher or the voluptuary and took second place to the basic need to survive on the one hand, and the pressure to conform to social conventions and morality on the other. More recently there is a burgeoning interest in the study of happiness, in the social sciences and in the media. Can we really answer the question what makes people happy? Is it really grounded in credible methods and data? Is there consistency in the determinants of happiness across countries and cultures? Are happiness levels innate to individuals or can policy and the environment make a difference? How is happiness affected by poverty? By economic progress? Is happiness a viable objective for policy? This book is an attempt to answer these questions, based on research on the determinants of happiness in countries around the world, ranging from Peru and Russia to the U.S. and Afghanistan. The book reviews the theory and concepts of happiness, explaining how these concepts underpin a line of research which is both an attempt to understand the determinants of happiness and a tool for understanding the effects of a host of phenomena on human well being. The research finds surprising consistency in the determinants of happiness across levels of development. Yet there is still much debate over the relationship between happiness and income. The book explores the effects of many mediating factors in that relationship, ranging from macroeconomic trends and democracy to inequality and crime. It also reviews what we know about happiness and health and how that relationship varies according to income levels and health status. It concludes by discussing the potential - and the potential pitfalls - of using happiness surveys to contribute to better public policy.

Author : Chin Long Chiang
Publisher :
Page : 344 pages
File Size : 36,25 MB
Release : 1984
Category : Medical
ISBN :

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The statistical theory of the ordinary life table is presented in this book, with its construction explained. Topics cover measures of mortality and adjustment of rates, and other areas include survival and stages of disease, reproduction, married life, antenatal life table and ecological studies.

Author : Shimon Edelman
Publisher : Springer Nature
Page : 225 pages
File Size : 47,38 MB
Release : 2023-04-06
Category : Psychology
ISBN : 303124012X

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This book is about all things consciousness, great and small. It starts by pointing to the key characteristic of consciousness, without realizing which it cannot be understood: like everything else about the mind, it is fundamentally a kind of computation. Among many other matters, this explains: how it is that we share some aspects of consciousness with bacteria; how it can arise in artificial machines and not just living ones; how the empty cocoon of the self that it spins ends up pretending to be the butterfly; and how consciousness dooms this virtual butterfly to the splendor and the suffering of being awake and aware. Unlike most other books on consciousness, this one includes a discussion of some possible ways whereby we, pinned like butterflies by our species’ history and socioeconomic circumstances, can awake to our collective predicament and join forces to do something about it. It should be of interest to all readers who care about the nature of our lived experience — and about our survival, which depends on developing critical consciousness of our dire situation and the social dynamics that shape it.

Author : Alberto Alesina
Publisher :
Page : 52 pages
File Size : 16,94 MB
Release : 2001
Category : Contentment
ISBN :

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The answer to the question posed in the title is "yes." Using a total of 128,106 answers to a survey question about "happiness," we find that there is a large, negative and significant effect of inequality on happiness in Europe but not in the US. There are two potential explanations. First, Europeans prefer more equal societies (inequality belongs in the utility function for Europeans but not for Americans). Second, social mobility is (or is perceived to be) higher in the US so being poor is not seen as affecting future income. We test these hypotheses by partitioning the sample across income and ideological lines. There is evidence of "inequality generated" unhappiness in the US only for a sub-group of rich leftists. In Europe inequality makes the poor unhappy, as well as the leftists. This favors the hypothesis that inequality affects European happiness because of their lower social mobility (since no preference for equality exists amongst the rich or the right). The results help explain the greater popular demand for government to fight inequality in Europe relative to the US.

Author : Daniel T.L. Shek
Publisher : Springer Science & Business Media
Page : 552 pages
File Size : 37,35 MB
Release : 2005-06-08
Category : Education
ISBN : 9781402036019

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The majority of studies on the quality of life have been conducted in Western contexts and are based on Western participants. Comparatively speaking, there are only a few studies that have been conducted in different Chinese contexts. Also, there are fewer QOL studies based on children and adolescents, or studies that examine the relationship between QOL and economic disadvantage. In addition, more research is needed to address the methodological issues related to the assessment of quality of life. This volume is a constructive response to the challenges described above. It is the first book to cover research in Chinese, Western and global contexts in a single volume. It is a ground-breaking volume in which Chinese studies on the quality of life are collected. The book includes papers addressing family QOL, quality of life in adolescents experiencing economic disadvantage, and methodological issues in the assessment of QOL. It is written by researchers working in a variety of disciplines.

Author : Yang Yang
Publisher : CRC Press
Page : 352 pages
File Size : 28,4 MB
Release : 2016-04-19
Category : Mathematics
ISBN : 1466507535

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This book explores the ways in which statistical models, methods, and research designs can be used to open new possibilities for APC analysis. Within a single, consistent HAPC-GLMM statistical modeling framework, the authors synthesize APC models and methods for three research designs: age-by-time period tables of population rates or proportions, repeated cross-section sample surveys, and accelerated longitudinal panel studies. They show how the empirical application of the models to various problems leads to many fascinating findings on how outcome variables develop along the age, period, and cohort dimensions.