Arbeitspapier

International evidence on well-being

National Time Accounting is a way of measuring society's well-being, based on time use. Its explicit form is the U-index, for unpleasant or undesirable, which measures the proportion of time an individual spends in an unpleasant state. In this paper I review cross-country evidence on happiness and life satisfaction and consider whether these data will likely be replaced by the U-index. I find that first, that there are many similarities. According to both measures happiness is higher for the more educated, for married people, for those with higher income and for whites and lower for the unemployed; is U-shaped in age and un-trended over time in the USA although they are trended up in a number of EU countries and especially so in developing countries. Equivalent results are found using self-reported unhappiness data. Second, there is a large body of data on happiness that is unavailable on the U-index. For example, according to happiness research well-being across nations is lower the higher is the unemployment rate, the current inflation rate and the highest inflation rate in a person's adult life. Higher inequality also lowers happiness. Third, we know little about the predictive power of the U-index. Happiness and life satisfaction data seem able to forecast migration flows. Fourth, happy people are particularly optimistic about the future. Fifth, according to the happiness data the US ranks above France but the U-index suggests the reverse.

Language
Englisch

Bibliographic citation
Series: IZA Discussion Papers ; No. 3354

Classification
Wirtschaft
Time Allocation and Labor Supply
Subject
Happiness
unhappiness
pain
life satisfaction
Lebenszufriedenheit
Vergleich
Lebensqualität
Zeitbudgetforschung
Sozialer Indikator
Welt
USA
EU-Staaten

Event
Geistige Schöpfung
(who)
Blanchflower, David G.
Event
Veröffentlichung
(who)
Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA)
(where)
Bonn
(when)
2008

Handle
Last update
10.03.2025, 11:44 AM CET

Data provider

This object is provided by:
ZBW - Deutsche Zentralbibliothek für Wirtschaftswissenschaften - Leibniz-Informationszentrum Wirtschaft. If you have any questions about the object, please contact the data provider.

Object type

  • Arbeitspapier

Associated

  • Blanchflower, David G.
  • Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA)

Time of origin

  • 2008

Other Objects (12)