C’est avec une grande émotion que nous avons participé à la journée d’hommage à Daniel Cohen le 29 septembre dernier. Merci à celles et ceux qui étaient là ou qui l’ont suivi à distance.

Les publications que nous présentons ce mois suffisent à démontrer l’importance qu’ont pris les métriques de bien-être subjectif parmi nos outils de compréhension de la société, du bien-être au travail des enseignants à celui des enfants, en passant par le changement climatique, la mobilité sociale et les comportements de vote.

Observatoire

Satisfaction au travail des enseignants : un manque de valorisation monétaire et sociale

Lu sur le Web

Moral, état d’esprit et engagement des jeunes en 2023

Le baromètre DJEPVA sur la jeunesse 2023 actualise les connaissances sur la satisfaction des jeunes (18-30 ans) à l’égard de leur vie, leur état d’esprit, leur confiance ou inquiétude face à l’avenir ainsi que sur leur engagement citoyen, tout en proposant des points de comparaison avec leurs aînés. Dans l’édition 2023, l’échantillon du baromètre a en effet été élargi aux personnes âgées de 31 ans et plus et aux mineurs âgés de 15 à 17 ans : 5 517 personnes âgées de 15 ans et plus ont ainsi été interrogées.

Dans un contexte difficile à de nombreux égards (inflation, changement climatique, guerre en Ukraine…) mais néanmoins plus favorable sur le marché du travail, 64 % des jeunes considèrent que leur vie actuelle correspond à leurs attentes : ce résultat, en amélioration par rapport à celui du début de la pandémie de 2020, se situe dans la moyenne de ces huit dernières années. De même, la part des jeunes qui emploient des termes ou des expressions positives pour décrire leur état d’esprit (51 %) ainsi que la part de ceux qui se disent confiants en l’avenir (67 %) sont proches des taux observés avant la pandémie.

Cependant, les disparités sociodémographiques ne se sont pas atténuées. À titre illustratif, les jeunes au chômage se déclarent moins satisfaits de leur vie (43 %) que les autres jeunes, et les jeunes femmes décrivent leur état d’esprit du moment de manière moins positive que les jeunes hommes (47 % contre 54 % des hommes). En outre, les jeunes titulaires d’un diplôme inférieur au bac sont moins confiants pour les trois futures années (63 %) que leurs homologues.

Autre enseignement, et selon la nouvelle définition du bénévolat retenue dans l’édition 2023, 40 % des jeunes disent avoir donné bénévolement de leur temps au sein d’une association au cours de 12 derniers mois, dont 26 % de manière régulière (au moins une fois par mois). Leurs domaines d’engagement sont variés (sport, jeunesse et éducation, santé et recherche, culture et loisirs, social et solidarités, environnement, etc.), même si le sport demeure le secteur le plus prisé (27 %). Le baromètre donne aussi à voir les autres modalités de participation citoyenne que les jeunes empruntent pour faire entendre leur voix : pétition, défense d’une cause sur internet, sur un blog ou un réseau social (40 %), manifestation, grève (28 %), se faire élire pour représenter ses pairs (21 %), etc.

Good Childhood Report, 2023

The Children’s Society a publié la livraison 2023 de son rapport annuel sur le bien-être des enfants au Royaume-Uni. Interrogés au printemps, 10% des enfants déclaraient un niveau de bien-être faible, tandis que la tendance à la baisse de la moyenne se poursuit. Par rapport aux années précédentes, l’inflation a mis en relief les questions de niveau de vie, avec 4 enfants sur 5 inquiets de la hausse des prix sur leur foyer.

Subjective well-being measurement: Current practice and new frontiers

Abstract: In the ten years since the OECD published its 2013 Guidelines on Measuring Subjective Well-being, the inclusion of evaluative, affective and eudaimonic indicators in national measurement frameworks and household surveys has grown. Country practice has converged around a standard measure of life satisfaction, however affective and eudaimonic measures remain less harmonised. This working paper combines findings from a stock take of OECD member state uptake of Guidelines recommendations with advances in the academic evidence base to highlight three focal areas for future work. Looking ahead, the OECD should prioritise (i) revisiting recommendations on affective indicators, particularly in light of recent OECD recommendations on measuring mental health; (ii) reviewing progress towards operationalising measures of eudaimonia; and (iii) creating new extended modules to measure the subjective well-being of children, to deepen advice on domain-specific life evaluation measures, and to further develop more globally inclusive measures, drawing on (for example) concepts of subjective well-being developed in Indigenous contexts and beyond western European/North American research literatures.

Mahoney, J. (2023), “Subjective well-being measurement: Current practice and new frontiers”, OECD Papers on Well-being and Inequalities, No. 17, OECD Publishing, Paris, https://doi.org/10.1787/4e180f51-en.

Are the Upwardly-Mobile More Left-Wing?

Abstract: It is well-known that the wealthier are more likely to have Right-leaning political preferences. We here in addition consider the role of the individual’s starting position, and in particular their upward social mobility relative to their parents. In 18 waves of UK panel data, both own and parental social status are independently positively associated with Right-leaning voting and political preferences: given their own social status, the upwardly-mobile are therefore more Left-wing. We investigate a number of potential mediators: these results do not reflect the relationship between well-being and own and parents’ social status, but are rather linked to the individual’s beliefs about how fair society is.

Clark, Andrew and Cotofan, Maria, (2023), Are the Upwardly-Mobile More Left-Wing?, No 16290, IZA Discussion Papers, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).

Feelings in Travel Episodes and Extreme Temperatures

Abstract: In recent decades, global warming and its relationship to individual well-being has concerned researchers and policy makers, with research focusing on the consequences of global warming on well-being. In this paper, we analyse the relationship between weather conditions and the feelings reported by individuals during daily travel episodes. We use data from the Well-Being module of the American Time Use Survey for the years 2010, 2012, 2013, and 2021, together with county-level weather information. Our findings indicate an association between extreme temperatures and certain measures of affective well-being while commuting, and notable differences are found, depending on the main travel purpose. In the current context of global warming, when daily temperatures are expected to rise in the future and heat waves will become more frequent, our findings indicate that certain travel activities could be more sensitive to rising temperatures, from an affective perspective, which may help to complement the well-being consequences of global warming.

Belloc, Ignacio, Gimenez-Nadal, José Ignacio and Molina, José Alberto, (2023), Feelings in Travel Episodes and Extreme Temperatures, No 16241, IZA Discussion Papers, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).

How the Well-Being Function Varies with Age: The Importance of Income, Health, and Social Relations over the Life Cycle

Abstract: Previous literature has identified income, poor health and social relationships as the most important predictors of subjective well-being (SWB). In addition, the literature has identified a non-linear relationship between age and SWB, with a dip in SWB in mid-life. Explanations of the non-linear age-SWB relationship include the notion of unmet aspirations and the idea that people’s emotional response to the drivers of SWB changes with age. Against this background, we use representative longitudinal data for Germany (1992- 2019) with about 570,000 observations for more than 88,000 individuals aged 16-105 years to investigate if and how the association between SWB and its main predictors changes over the life cycle. Using fixed effects estimation to control for cohort effects and unobserved personal characteristics, we find that the marginal effects of income and social relationships vary with age in a wave-like fashion, while the negative marginal effect of poor health increases monotonically and progressively with age. Our results are similar for alternative measures of SWB (life satisfaction and living in misery) and for men and women. The agerelated changes in the importance of income and social relationships for SWB found in this paper help to explain the relationship between age and SWB found in previous literature.

Bitzer, Juergen, Goeren, Erkan and Welsch, Heinz, (2023), How the Well-Being Function Varies with Age: The Importance ofIncome, Health, and Social Relations over the Life Cycle, No V-442-23, Working Papers, University of Oldenburg, Department of Economics.

The Benefits and Costs of Guest Worker Programs: Experimental Evidence from the India-UAE Migration Corridor

Abstract: We estimate the individual returns to temporary migration programs using a randomized experiment with several thousand job seekers in India applying to guest worker jobs in the United Arab Emirates (UAE). Working with construction companies and the UAE Ministry of Labor, we randomized job offers to potential migrant workers at recruitment sites. We measured effects on labor market outcomes, well-being, social relationships, and work satisfaction, as well as on labor intermediation costs, assets and debt. We find that workers who received the randomized offer experienced 30% higher earnings, and those who take up the offer to migrate to the UAE doubled their compensation. However, they also paid substantial upfront costs to labor intermediaries, financed by additional debt, that reduced take-home pay by about 10%. Migrants also reported a significant fall in subjective well-being, driven by increases in physical pain, effort, and heat. There were no significant effects on loneliness or other dimensions of well-being. Our finding of negative effects on well-being is consistent with the large share of workers offered jobs who did not migrate to the UAE. Extrapolating using a linear marginal treatment effects framework to workers who decline the UAE job offer, we find large and positive pecuniary returns to migration, even including intermediary fees, but even larger non-pecuniary costs.

Naidu, Suresh, Nyarko, Yaw and Wang, Shing-Yi, (2023), The Benefits and Costs of Guest Worker Programs: Experimental Evidence from the India-UAE Migration Corridor, No 31354, NBER Working Papers, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.

How Can People Become Happier? A Systematic Review of Preregistered Experiments

Abstract: Can happiness be reliably increased? Thousands of studies speak to this question. However, many of them were conducted during a period in which researchers commonly “p-hacked,” creating uncertainty about how many discoveries might be false positives. To prevent p-hacking, happiness researchers increasingly preregister their studies, committing to analysis plans before analyzing data. We conducted a systematic literature search to identify preregistered experiments testing strategies for increasing happiness. We found surprisingly little support for many widely recommended strategies (e.g., performing random acts of kindness). However, our review suggests that other strategies—such as being more sociable—may reliably promote happiness. We also found strong evidence that governments and organizations can improve happiness by providing underprivileged individuals with financial support. We conclude that happiness research stands on the brink of an exciting new era, in which modern best practices will be applied to develop theoretically grounded strategies that can produce lasting gains in life satisfaction.

How Can People Become Happier? A Systematic Review of Preregistered Experiments, Dunigan Folk and Elizabeth Dunn, Annual Review of Psychology 2024 75:1

Financial Wellbeing and International Migration Intentions: Evidence from Global Surveys

Abstract: This paper investigates the role of subjective financial wellbeing (FWB) in international migration. A large body of literature established that higher relative income deprivation motivates migration. Most of this literature emphasizes income-based measures of relative deprivation (RD) and neglects to account for subjective perceptions of financial and economic wellbeing. We draw on rich global surveys from the Gallup World Poll (GWP) between 2009 and 2018, across 151 countries. Employing a range of indicators, after controlling for initial absolute income, we find that international migration intentions are not only positively related to income-based RD, but also to having unfavorable relative perceptions of financial and economic well-being. This suggests that both objective and subjective elements of FWB can reinforce migration desires. This relationship is not monotone throughout the income distribution. Richer individuals have higher propensity to migrate when pessimistic about future economic and financial prosperity. As would be expected, income-based RD appears to have a lesser effect on those in the top income quintile than it does on poorer people. Our results are robust to using different income-based and subjective FWB indicators, controlling for individual characteristics, country and time effects, and addressing endogeneity of both income and perceptions.

El Anshasy, A.A., Shamsuddin, M. & Katsaiti, MS. Financial Wellbeing and International Migration Intentions: Evidence from Global Surveys. J Happiness Stud (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10902-023-00679-7

Gender-neutral language and gender disparities

Abstract: It has been suggested that the use of gendered language reinforces gendered stereotypes and influences behaviour. This column investigates whether the performance of women was affected when more gender-neutral language was introduced to Israeli standardised college entrance exams. The use of more gender-neutral language is associated with a significant improvement in performance on quantitative questions, where women are stereotypically perceived as underperforming, without negative effects on the performance of men.

Cohen, Alma; Karelitz, Tzur; Kricheli Katz, Tamar; Pumpian, Sephi; Regev, Tali, “Gender-neutral language and gender disparities“, VoxEU.org, august 2023.

Wage Structures, Fairness Perceptions, and Job Satisfaction: Evidence from Linked Employer-Employee Data

Abstract: The paper investigates the impact of firms’ wage structures and workers’ wage fairness perceptions on workers’ well-being. For this purpose, worker and establishment surveys are linked with administrative social security data. Four variables are generated, using approximately half a million worker-year observations, that describe firms’ wage structures and workers’ positions within the wage structures: own absolute wages, internal reference wages within firms, external reference wages, and the wage dispersion in firms. The interrelations between these wage structure variables, workers’ perceived wage fairness, and job satisfaction are then analyzed using regressions. Interpersonal wage comparisons between co-workers in the same firm and across firms as well as wage fairness perceptions are found to be significant determinants of workers’ well-being. The overall findings suggest that equity and social status considerations as well as altruistic preferences towards co-workers and inequality aversion are more important than signal considerations in this context.

Mohrenweiser, J., Pfeifer, C. Wage Structures, Fairness Perceptions, and Job Satisfaction: Evidence from Linked Employer-Employee Data. J Happiness Stud (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10902-023-00680-0

Part-time Parental Leave and Life Satisfaction: Evidence from the Netherlands

Abstract: There is extensive literature on the relationship between having children and life satisfaction. Although parenthood can provide meaningfulness in life, parenting may increase obligations and decrease leisure time, reducing life satisfaction. In the Netherlands, parental leave is a part-time work arrangement that allows parents with young children to reconcile better work and family commitments. Using panel data from the Dutch Longitudinal Internet Studies for the Social Sciences (LISS), we estimated with fixed-effects models the impact of the part-time parental leave scheme in the Netherlands on the life satisfaction of parents with young children. We find that the legal framework of Dutch parental leave offering job-protected leave and fiscal benefits are conducive to parents’ life satisfaction. Our findings hold using different model specifications. Additionally, we did not find evidence for existing reverse causality and that shorter and more elaborate parental leave schemes are more beneficial for life satisfaction.

Dillenseger, L., Burger, M.J. & Munier, F. Part-time Parental Leave and Life Satisfaction: Evidence from the Netherlands. Applied Research Quality Life (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11482-023-10218-4

Crossing Boundaries and Time: An Exploration of Time Allocation, Emotional Well-Being of Immigrants in the United States

Abstract: This study investigates the emotional experiences of immigrants and native- born individuals in the United States, exploring the relationship between daily activities and feelings of happiness, stress, and meaningfulness. We analyze the entire range of daily activities and their durations, utilizing data from the American Time-Use Survey (ATUS) Well-Being modules. The results reveal that when viewed through the evaluation lenses of the general US population, immigrants engage in less happy, more stressful, and less meaningful activ- ities compared to natives. However, when considering subjective emotional assessments, immigrants are more optimistic and perceive these activities as associated with higher levels of happiness and meaningfulness. The study also finds evidence of emotional assimilation over time, with happiness disparities between immigrants and natives diminishing. However, this process appears incomplete for second-generation immigrants. The findings highlights the im- portance of recognizing the different perspectives of immigrants to formulate inclusive policies that facilitate integration.

Coniglio, Nicola, Hoxhaj, Rezart and Lagravinese, Raffaele, (2023), Crossing Boundaries and Time: An Exploration of Time Allocation, Emotional Well-Being of Immigrants in the United States, No 1306, GLO Discussion Paper Series, Global Labor Organization (GLO).

The U Shape of Happiness Across the Life Course: Expanding the Discussion

Abstract: The notion of a U shape in happiness-that well-being is highest for people in their 20s, decreases to its nadir in midlife, and then rises into old age-has captured the attention of the media, which often cite it as evidence for a midlife crisis. We argue that support for the purported U shape is not as robust and generalizable as is often assumed and present our case with the following arguments: (a) Cross-sectional studies are inadequate for drawing conclusions about within-person change in happiness across the life span; (b) cross-sectional evidence with respect to the ubiquity and robustness of the U shape in general levels of happiness and life satisfaction is mixed; (c) longitudinal support for the U shape in happiness and life satisfaction is also mixed; (d) longitudinal research on subjective indicators of well-being other than general levels of happiness and life satisfaction challenges the U shape; (e) when asked to reflect on their lives, older adults tend to recall midlife as one of the more positive periods; and (f) a focus on a single trajectory of well-being is of limited scientific and applied value because it obscures the diversity in pathways throughout life as well as its sources. Understanding happiness across the life course and moving the research field forward require a multidisciplinary, collaborative approach.

Galambos NL, Krahn HJ, Johnson MD, Lachman ME. The U Shape of Happiness Across the Life Course: Expanding the Discussion. Perspect Psychol Sci. 2020 Jul;15(4):898-912. doi: 10.1177/1745691620902428. Epub 2020 May 6. PMID: 32375015; PMCID: PMC7529452.

Were COVID and the Great Recession Well-being Reducing?

Abstract: We show individuals’ reports of subjective well being in Europe did decline in the Great Recession and during the Covid pandemic on most measures and on four bordering countries to Ukraine after the Russian invasion in 2022. However, the movements are not large and are not apparent everywhere. We also used data from the European Commission’s Business and Consumer Surveys on people’s expectations of life in general, their financial situation and the economic and employment situation in the country, all of which dropped markedly in the Great Recession and during Covid, but bounced back quickly, as did firms’ expectations of the economy and the labor market. Neither the UN’s Human Development Index (HDI) nor data used in the World Happiness Report from the Gallup World Poll shifted much in response to negative shocks. The HDI has been rising in the last decade or so reflecting overall improvements in economic and social wellbeing, captured in part by real earnings growth, although it fell slightly after 2020 as life expectancy dipped. This secular improvement is mirrored in life satisfaction which has been rising in the last decade. However, so too have negative affect in Europe and despair in the USA

Blanchflower, David and Bryson, Alex, (2023), Were COVID and the Great Recession Well-being Reducing?, No 31497, NBER Working Papers, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.

Subjective Well-Being and Populist Voting in the Netherlands

Abstract: This study analyzes whether subjective well-being can explain the populist vote in the Netherlands. Using data on voting intention and subjective well-being for over 7700 individuals from 2008 to 2019—a period during which populist parties became well-established in the Netherlands—we estimate logit and multinomial logit random effects regressions. We find evidence of an association between decreased subjective well-being and the probability to vote for a populist party that goes beyond changes in dissatisfaction with society—lack of confidence in parliament, democracy and the economy—and ideological orientation. At the same time, we find no evidence for a relationship between subjective well-being and voting for other non-incumbent parties other than populist parties.

Burger, M.J., Eiselt, S. Subjective Well-Being and Populist Voting in the Netherlands. J Happiness Stud (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10902-023-00685-9

The Short- and the Long-Run Impact of Gender-Biased Teachers

Abstract: We examine the persistence of teachers’ gender biases by following teachers over time in different classes. We find a very high correlation of gender biases for teachers across their classes. We find a substantial impact of gender bias on student performance in university admissions exams, choice of university field of study, and quality of the enrolled program. The effects on university choice outcomes are larger for girls, explaining some gender differences in STEM majors. Teachers with lower value-added are also more likely to be gender biased.

Victor Lavy, Rigissa Megalokonomou, “The Short- and the Long-Run Impact of Gender-Biased Teachers”, American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, forthcoming. NBER WP version.

Violence Against Women at Work

Abstract: In this paper, we link every police report in Finland to administrative data to identify violence between colleagues, and the economic consequences for victims, perpetrators, and firms. This new approach to observe when one colleague attacks another overcomes previous data constraints limiting evidence on this phenomenon to self-reported surveys that do not identify perpetrators. We document large, persistent labor market impacts of between-colleague violence on victims and perpetrators. Male perpetrators experience substantially weaker consequences after attacking female colleagues. Perpetrators’ relative economic power in male-female violence partly explains this asymmetry. Turning to broader implications for firm recruitment and retention, we find that male-female violence causes a decline in the proportion of women at the firm, both because fewer new women are hired and current female employees leave. Management plays a key role in mediating the impacts on the wider workforce. Only male-managed firms lose women. Female-managed firms exhibit a key difference relative to male-managed firms: male perpetrators are less likely to remain employed after attacking their female colleagues.

Abi Adams-Prassl, Kristiina Huttunen, Emily Nix, Ning Zhang, Violence Against Women at Work, The Quarterly Journal of Economics, 2023;, qjad045, https://doi.org/10.1093/qje/qjad045

Au-delà du PIB : une évaluation de la croissance du bien-être monétaire dans 14 pays européens et aux États-Unis

Résumé: Mesure et ressenti de croissance sont souvent opposés et effectivement la croissance du PIB n’implique pas nécessairement une amélioration économique perçue par la population. Pour quantifier cet écart, nous développons un indicateur de bien-être monétaire appelé « PIB ressenti » qui mesure, en équivalent monétaire, la moyenne nationale de la contribution des revenus à la satisfaction dans la vie. Il offre une vision rétrospective très différente de celle mesurée par le PIB. Ainsi, aux États-Unis, le PIB ressenti a stagné entre 1978 et 2020 alors que le PIB triplait. L’écart s’est creusé entre l’Europe et les États-Unis en PIB par habitant, mais resserré en PIB ressenti par habitant, certains pays comme le Danemark, la Suède, la Finlande ou la France dépassant même les États-Unis. On constate également que les crises économiques durent beaucoup plus longtemps mesurées par la croissance du PIB ressenti, jusqu’à une décennie, contre une ou deux années avec la mesure conventionnelle de la croissance.

Germain, J.‑M. (2023). Beyond GDP: A Welfare-Based Estimate of Growth for 14 European Countries and the USA Over Past Decades. Economie et Statistique / Economics and Statistics, 539, 3–25. doi: 10.24187/ecostat.2023.539.2095

The Usual Suspects: Offender Origin, Media Reporting and Natives’ Attitudes Towards Immigration

Abstract: Immigration and crime are two first-order issues that are often considered jointly in people’s minds. This paper analyzes how media reporting policies on crime impact natives’ attitudes towards immigration. We depart from most studies by investigating the content of crime-related articles instead of their coverage. Specifically, we use a radical change in local media reporting on crime in Germany as a natural experiment. This unique framework allows us to estimate whether systematically disclosing the places of origin of criminals affects natives’ attitudes towards immigration. We combine individual survey data collected between January 2014 and December 2018 from the German SocioEconomic Panel with data from more than 545,000 crime-related articles in German newspapers and data on their diffusion across the country. Our results indicate that systematically mentioning the origins of criminals, especially when offenders are natives, significantly reduces natives’ concerns about immigration.

Sekou Keita & Thomas Renault & Jérôme Valette, 2021. “The Usual Suspects: Offender Origin, Media Reporting and Natives’ Attitudes Towards Immigration,” Université Paris1 Panthéon-Sorbonne (Post-Print and Working Papers) halshs-03167833, HAL.