What do Happiness Data Mean? Theory and Survey Evidence

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Benjamin, Daniel J.; Debnam Guzman, Jakina; Fleurbaey, Marc; Heffetz, Ori; Kimball, Miles
• 署名单位: University of California System; University of California Los Angeles; University of California System; University of California Los Angeles; University of California Los Angeles Medical Center; David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA; Amherst College; Paris School of Economics; Hebrew University of Jerusalem; Hebrew University of Jerusalem; Cornell University; University of Colorado System; University of Colorado Boulder
• 刊物名称: JOURNAL OF THE EUROPEAN ECONOMIC ASSOCIATION
• ISSN/ISSBN: 1542-4766
• DOI: 10.1093/jeea/jvad026
• 发表日期: 2023
• 页码: 2377-2412
• 关键词: life; HEALTH; time; explorations; satisfaction; utility; CHOICE; would; happy

摘要

What utility notion-e.g. flow/lifetime, self/family-centered-do self-reported well-being (SWB) questions measure? Existing applications make different assumptions regarding the (i) life domains, (ii) time horizons, and (iii) other-regarding preferences captured by SWB data. To obtain relevant evidence, we ask survey respondents what they had in mind regarding (i)-(iii) when answering commonly used-life satisfaction, happiness, ladder-and new SWB questions. We find that respondents' self-reports differ from researchers' assumptions and differ across SWB questions and sociodemographic groups. At the same time, simple SWB-question wording tweaks are effective in moving self-reports toward desired interpretations. We outline actionable suggestions for SWB researchers. (JEL: D69, D90, I31)