Sachs (2018) on “America’s Health Crisis and the Easterlin Paradox”

Jeffrey D. Sachs, “America’s Health Crisis and the Easterlin Paradox.” Chapter 7 in World Happiness Report 2018, available at https://worldhappiness.report/ed/2018/.

• In the US, “income per capita has more than doubled since 1972 while happiness… has remained roughly unchanged or has even declined.” (The Easterlin Paradox lives on in the US of A...)

• Some culprits: obesity, substance abuse (particularly with opioids), and depression

• Aggregate factors that influence cross-country SWB include: health; social support networks; personal freedom; social trust; and generosity

• The US displays declining life expectancy! Drug overdose deaths are a part of the story

• Some 38% of US adults are obese: added sugar and snacks are among the suspects. Corn subsidies promote the consumption of high-fructose corn syrup

• The obesity/depression circle: "Studies have found that obesity is a significant predictive factor for subsequent depression, while depression is a predictive factor for subsequent obesity [p. 151]." 

• There's also a screen time/depression circle, while video games and social media provide new sources of addiction

• Mental illness and depression remain the major determinants of well-being. In the US, "There is significant evidence of a major, long-term, and continuing epidemic of clinical depression...[p. 153]." 

• Behavioral Economics Outlines also has outlined a contribution by Professor Sachs to the 2019 World Happiness Report on addiction and unhappiness  in the US. Incidentally, the 2021 World Happiness Report, co-edited and with other contributions by Professor Sachs, is available here. (All nine of the reports that have been released to date can be found here.)

Hoang and Knabe (2019) on Unemployment and Happiness

Thi Truong An Hoang and Andreas Knabe, “Time Use, Unemployment, and Well-being: an Empirical Analysis Using British Time-use Data.” CESifo Working Paper No. 7581, March 2019.

• Unemployment seems to lower subjective well-being (SWB) when measured as life satisfaction – but most people find the hours spent at their jobs not to be very happy.

• Perhaps the unemployed have better days, on average, than the employed, because the unemployed can shift time away from working and commuting – that is, the unemployed might win at SWB measured as (duration-weighted) affect, while losing in the life satisfaction measure of SWB.

• If an employed person and an unemployed person are both engaged in a leisure activity like listening to music, say, the employed person is likely to receive more satisfaction from it; this reflects the "saddening effect" of unemployment, where holding activities constant, the unemployed receive less pleasure from the activities than do the employed. 

• But the unemployed are able to engage in relatively pleasurable activities more frequently than the employed: this is the "time-composition effect" of unemployment.

• In the authors' British time-use data, the employed hold the edge in life satisfaction and in "life being worthwhile" measures of SWB; work itself seems meaningful, but not particularly enjoyable.

• The unemployed sleep more, and watch tv more. They also spend more time looking for a job, and that is an activity that people do not enjoy.

• Despite the saddening effect of unemployment – when engaging in the same activity, the employed capture more happiness than do the unemployed – the unemployed capture more happiness (affect) in a typical day than do the employed, thanks to the time-composition effect. Working really is not all that happiness-inducing.

• People enjoy weekends more than weekdays, and the weekend bonus is greater for the employed.

• Incidentally, there's some US data that shows significant differences in time use between prime-age men who are not in the labor force versus the unemployed.

• All this work on posting this outline is making me sad.