Twenge and Cooper (2022) on the Happiness Class Divide

Jean M. Twenge and A. Bell Cooper, “The Expanding Class Divide in Happiness in the United States, 1972–2016.” Emotion 22(4): 701–713, 2022. 

• Signs of a growing class divide in the US include the data on income inequality, “deaths of despair,” and the rising mortality rate for non-college educated white Americans. 

• Has it become more true in the US that money and prestige buy happiness? Twenge and Cooper attempt to answer this question. 

• The data: the General Social Survey (GSS), 1972-2016, adults age 30 and above, n≈44,000. 

• “Class” here is of the socio-economic variety (SES), and is measured by income, education, and “occupational prestige” 

• The GSS happiness question: ‘Taken all together, how would you say things are these days—would you say that you are very happy, pretty happy, or not too happy?’ 

• Income, education, and occupational prestige all contribute considerably to happiness – and for income, the effect does not taper off as income rises. 

• The connection between SES and happiness has increased markedly between 1972 and 2016 – though some of this increase can be traced to increasing marital differences between SES classes. 

• The larger happiness gap between SES groups is, for white people, caused by diminishing happiness for those in the lower classes, while the upper-class folks almost held their own in terms of happiness. 

• For Black people, lower-SES people showed a small decline in happiness between 1972-2016, but high-SES people saw a significant increase in happiness. 

• Has class become more salient as income inequality increases?

Leitzel (2021) on Regulating Cocaine

Jim Leitzel, “Double Defaults: Behavioral Regulation of Cocaine.” Journal of Behavioral Economics for Policy 5(1): 7-12, 2021 [pdf here]. 

• Can we protect against the dangers of excessive or highly risky cocaine use without imposing the huge costs that accompany cocaine prohibition? 

• Yes, we can! We can offer some protection against diseased or impulsive decision-making, without posing a large barrier to “rational” cocaine use. 

• We can manage the supply side like alcohol, perhaps, or prescription drugs, but… we also can “nudge” people towards rational cocaine-related behavior. 

• We can take advantage of the surprising power of default options. 

• The First Default: You are Not Eligible to Purchase Cocaine. 

• If you are of age, you can choose to override this default of ineligibility.

• Pass a test, pay a fee, acquire a cocaine buyer’s license; behave well or you will lose your cocaine buyer’s license!

• The Second Default(s): You Can Only Purchase Cocaine in Moderate Doses.

• Prices, Quantities, Waiting Periods – the default settings on all of these are aimed at enforcing modest consumption. The waiting period involves ordering your cocaine purchases in advance, by three days, say. 

• At some cost (time, money), you can override these default terms for more liberal access to cocaine (if you have a record of unproblematic cocaine-related behavior); alternatively, you can opt-in to more stringent rules, at low cost or even some subsidization. Want to only be allowed to purchase cocaine on weekends? – great, you can impose this restriction, and the suppliers will enforce it.  Want to have a cocaine-free February? Great, you can put in a no-purchases-during-February rule, and the sellers will enforce it.