Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/77737 
Year of Publication: 
2013
Citation: 
[Journal:] SERIEs - Journal of the Spanish Economic Association [ISSN:] 1869-4195 [Volume:] 4 [Issue:] 1 [Publisher:] Springer [Place:] Heidelberg [Year:] 2013 [Pages:] 35-60
Publisher: 
Springer, Heidelberg
Abstract: 
There is enough evidence to be confident that individuals are able and willing to provide a meaningful answer when asked to value on a finite scale their satisfaction with their own lives, a question that psychologists have long and often posed to respondents of large questionnaires. Without taking its limitations and criticisms too lightly, some economists have been using thismeasure of self-reported satisfaction as a proxy for utility so as to contribute to a better understanding of individuals' tastes and hopefully behavior. By means of satisfaction questions we can elicit information on individual likes and dislikes over a large set of relevant issues, such as income, working status and job amenities, the risk of becoming unemployed, inflation, and health status. This information can be used to evaluate existing ideas from a new perspective, understand individual behavior, evaluate and design public policies, study poverty and inequality, and develop a preference based valuation method. In this article I first critically assess the pros and cons of using satisfaction variables, and then discuss its main applications.
Subjects: 
happiness economics
preferences
subjective well-being
welfare
JEL: 
D31
I1
I3
Persistent Identifier of the first edition: 
Creative Commons License: 
cc-by Logo
Document Type: 
Article

Files in This Item:
File
Size
365.02 kB





Items in EconStor are protected by copyright, with all rights reserved, unless otherwise indicated.