En ce début de mois de mai, nous publions une Note qui revient sur le bien-être des retraités en France, en dialogue avec les travaux de L. Soulat, que nous avions croisé en fin d’année dernière au Conseil d’Orientation des Retraites.
Note de l’Observatoire du Bien-être n°2024-04 : Les retraités sont-ils plus heureux que les actifs ?
Les réformes des régimes de retraite ne manquent jamais de susciter de forts mouvements de résistance. Est-ce parce que la retraite est le gage d’un gain en bien-être ? En comparant les seniors actifs et les retraités du même âge, et en suivant les personnes autour du passage à la retraite, on constate qu’il n’en est rien. D’autres idées couramment partagées, concernant l’influence bénéfique d’un environnement rural, par exemple, se voient également démenties par les différentes enquêtes françaises et européennes que nous mobilisons.
Margolis, Louis. 2024. « Les retraités sont-ils plus heureux que les actifs ? » 2024‑04. Notes de l’Observatoire du bien-être. Paris: Cepremap. https://www.cepremap.fr/2024/04/note-de-lobservatoire-du-bien-etre-n2024-04-les-retraites-sont-ils-plus-heureux-que-les-actifs/.
Sur le web
L’effet du passage à la retraite sur le bien-être des Français
Les débats autour de la réforme des retraites mise en œuvre en 2023 ont mis en évidence de fortes réticences parmi les Français envers la perspective d’un report de l’âge de la retraite. Ces réticences traduisent probablement une aspiration assez large des Français à profiter de leur retraite : de fait, l’exploitation des réponses à la vague 2020 de l’enquête Pat€r (PATrimoine et préférences vis-à-vis du TEmps et du Risque) montre que la représentation que les Français se font de la retraite est majoritairement très favorable. Pour autant ces représentations peuvent varier selon les individus : il est possible que l’aspiration à profiter de la retraite soit plus marquée chez les personnes souffrant des conditions d’exercice de leur activité (pénibilité physique, perte de sens…), ces souffrances pouvant s’accentuer avec l’âge. A contrario, pour d’autres personnes, qui occupent des emplois davantage gratifiants, l’attrait de la retraite est potentiellement plus réduit. Selon les cas, le passage à la retraite peut donc coïncider, ou pas, avec l’amélioration du bien-être. Pour tenter d’objectiver ces questions qui étaient au cœur du colloque organisé par le Conseil d’orientation des retraites (COR) le 4 décembre 2023, le présent article propose une analyse de l’évolution du bien-être subjectif au moment du passage à la retraite.
Il apparaît ainsi qu’en 2020, le niveau de satisfaction dans la vie (en moyenne de 6,6 sur 10 pour les personnes âgées de 25 à 79 ans) varie assez peu selon l’âge : si le bien-être atteint un niveau plancher entre 45-59 ans, l’écart entre les tranches d’âge n’excède pas 0,6 point. C’est surtout l’état de santé ressenti qui ressort comme le déterminant majeur du niveau de bien-être : les personnes se déclarant en bonne ou en très bonne santé ont un niveau moyen de satisfaction dans la vie nettement supérieur à 7,0 sur 10 contre 5,3 pour les personnes se déclarant en mauvaise santé et 3,8 pour les personnes se déclarant en très mauvaise santé. Des analyses économétriques en coupe transversale confirment ces résultats.
L’analyse de l’évolution du bien-être entre deux vagues successives de l’enquête permet de préciser l’évolution du bien-être au moment du passage à la retraite : les résultats mettent en évidence un impact faiblement négatif sur le bien-être du passage à la retraite. Il est donc possible que dans certains cas la confrontation avec la réalité du départ à la retraite, qui oblige à trouver de nouveaux équilibres de vie, génère au moins transitoirement certaines déceptions, déceptions qui s’atténueraient à mesure que les retraités s’adaptent à leur nouvelle situation. L’étude met par ailleurs en évidence que le niveau de bien-être est affecté très négativement par certains événements de la vie, comme la dégradation de son état de santé ou le fait de vivre seul (suite à une séparation ou à un veuvage), or la probabilité de tels événements augmente avec l’âge.
Soulat, Laurent. 2024. « L’effet du passage à la retraite sur le bien-être des Français ». 42. Questions Politiques et Sociales. Paris: Caisse des Dépôts et Consignations. https://politiques-sociales.caissedesdepots.fr/sites/default/files/QPS_LE_42_publication.pdf.
Giving and receiving: Gendered service work in academia
Abstract: Deploying the perspective of ‘relational work’, this article investigates the mechanisms behind the gender-unequal distribution of academic service. The concept of relational work is used to analyse how men and women in academia balance collective against individual interests when agreeing or disagreeing on service tasks. Four types of relational work are identified: compliance, evasiveness, barter and investment, with compliance being more common among women, evasiveness and barter being more common among men and investment being tied to temporality in a gendered pattern. The article shows that men are more successful in pursuing individual interests against service demands and how this depends on their relational work as well as organisational role expectations, reducing women’s prospects of ‘saying no’. The study is based on qualitative interviews with 163 associate and full professors in the social sciences and CV data on their service contributions.
Järvinen, M., & Mik-Meyer, N. (2024). Giving and receiving: Gendered service work in academia. Current Sociology, 0(0). https://doi.org/10.1177/00113921231224754
Dynamic Analysis of Loneliness at Older Ages in Europe by Gender
Abstract: In this article, we analyse loneliness trajectories for older people aged 50 or more in selected European countries by gender. We also focus on the relationship between disability and loneliness trajectories. We use three waves of the longitudinal SHARE database. Loneliness trajectories are non-linear, increasing with age for both genders, and have the same shape irrespective of disability status but with different levels of loneliness. Loneliness persistence increases with disability and disability severity, especially for women. Worsening (improving) disability increases (decreases) the risk of loneliness persistence. We build rankings of the country’s effects on loneliness persistence by gender. Mediterranean and Eastern European countries have the highest persistence rates, while the lowest rates are in Northern countries.
Pagan, R., Malo, M.A. Dynamic Analysis of Loneliness at Older Ages in Europe by Gender. Applied Research Quality Life (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11482-024-10300-5
Gini who? The relationship between inequality perceptions and life satisfaction
Abstract: Research on the consequences of income inequality on subjective well-being has yielded mixed results, including a lack of a statistically significant correlation. We propose that this inconsistency may arise from the failure to differentiate between perceived and actual income inequality. Perceptions of inequality matter because individuals often do not know the actual level of inequality in their country. Leveraging data from the 2016 Life in Transition Survey, which includes unique information on individuals’ inequality perceptions, we find a positive association between these perceptions and life satisfaction across 33 countries. Individuals who believe that inequality has increased in the previous 4 years are on average 8% less satisfied with their life (on a 1-5 scale) compared to respondents who perceive no increase in inequality. The magnitude of the estimate is sizeable, being twice as large as the influence of unemployment. Taking actual inequality levels and changes into account does not alter the conclusions, suggesting that inequality perception matters for life satisfaction above and beyond actual inequality. Our findings survive a battery of robustness checks, including an instrumental variables approach and addressing common method variance bias. We also find that mobility expectations and fairness perceptions cushion but do not fully offset the negative association between perceived inequality increases and life satisfaction. Our findings imply that understanding the role of inequality perceptions can be key to improving social cohesion and individual and societal well-being.
Marchesi, Daniele & Nikolova, Milena & Angelini, Viola, 2024. “Gini who? The relationship between inequality perceptions and life satisfaction,” GLO Discussion Paper Series 1416, Global Labor Organization (GLO).
Inequality of opportunity and life satisfaction
Abstract: This article attempts to shed light on the contrasting findings about the effect of inequality on subjective wellbeing by decomposing income inequality into inequality of opportunity (due to factors that individuals cannot control) and inequality of effort. The two inequality components, calculated using EU-SILC data at regional and wave level, are matched with individual data on life satisfaction and its controls from the European Social Survey. We find that inequality of opportunity affects negatively and significantly subjective wellbeing, while inequality due to effort does not play a negative role. The negative effect of inequality of opportunity is stronger for women, the young, and the less educated. Our findings support the hypothesis that individuals are generally hit by that component of inequality (inequality of opportunity) that they perceive as unfair and beyond their control.
Leonardo Becchetti, Francesco Colcerasa, Vitorocco Peragine, Fabio Pisani, Inequality of opportunity and life satisfaction, Oxford Economic Papers, 2024;, gpae011, https://doi.org/10.1093/oep/gpae011
The new social landscape: Relationships among social media use, social skills, and offline friendships from age 10–18 years
Abstract: Social media has created a new social landscape for adolescents. Knowledge is needed on how this landscape shapes adolescents’ social skills and time spent with friends, as these outcomes are important to mental health and psychosocial functioning. Using five waves of biennially collected data from a birth cohort assessed throughout age 10–18 years (n = 812), we found that increased social media use predicted more time with friends offline but was unrelated to future changes in social skills. Age and sex did not moderate these associations but increased social media use predicted declined social skills among those high in social anxiety symptoms. The findings suggest that social media use may neither harm nor benefit the development of social skills and may promote, rather than displace, offline interaction with friends during adolescence. However, increased social media use may pose a risk for reduced social skills in socially anxious individuals.
Steinsbekk, Silje, Oda Bjørklund, Patti Valkenburg, Jacqueline Nesi, et Lars Wichstrøm. « The new social landscape: Relationships among social media use, social skills, and offline friendships from age 10–18 years ». Computers in Human Behavior 156 (1 juillet 2024): 108235. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chb.2024.108235.
Life Events and Life Satisfaction: Estimating Effects of Multiple Life Events in Combined Models
Abstract: How do life events affect life satisfaction? Previous studies focused on a single event or separate analyses of several events. However, life events are often grouped non-randomly over the lifespan, occur in close succession, and are causally linked, raising the question of how to best analyze them jointly. Here, we used representative German data (SOEP; N = 40,121 individuals; n = 41,402 event occurrences) to contrast three fixed-effects model specifications: First, individual event models in which other events were ignored, which are thus prone to undercontrol bias; second, combined event models which controlled for all events, including subsequent ones, which may induce overcontrol bias; and third, our favored combined models that only controlled for preceding events. In this preferred model, the events of new partner, cohabitation, marriage, and childbirth had positive effects on life satisfaction, while separation, unemployment, and death of partner or child had negative effects. Model specification made little difference for employment- and bereavement-related events. However, for events related to romantic relationships and childbearing, small but consistent differences arose between models. Thus, when estimating effects of new partners, separation, cohabitation, marriage, and childbirth, care should be taken to include appropriate controls (and omit inappropriate ones) to minimize bias.
Krämer, Michael D., Rohrer, Julia M., Lucas, Richard E. and Richter, David, (2024), Life Events and Life Satisfaction: Estimating Effects of Multiple Life Events in Combined Models, No 1204, SOEPpapers on Multidisciplinary Panel Data Research, DIW Berlin, The German Socio-Economic Panel (SOEP).
Micro-geography and public housing tenant wellbeing
Abstract: The micro-geography of people’s wellbeing depends on house and neighbourhood characteristics. We show that the form of tenancy is also important. Identical people in identical settings may have different wellbeing outcomes depending on their security of housing tenure. Our findings utilise a survey administered to residents in public rental housing, private rentals and owner-occupiers in New Zealand, focusing on the capital city, Wellington. Despite selection effects which are likely to bias findings against higher wellbeing for public housing tenants, we find that public tenants have higher subjective wellbeing (WHO-5 and Life satisfaction) than do private tenants, and similar wellbeing to owner-occupiers. Length of tenure helps to explain wellbeing differences between public and private tenants, likely reflecting New Zealand law under which private renters have insecure tenure (relative to many overseas jurisdictions). We find also that wellbeing is associated with residents’ perceptions of house suitability and neighbourhood suitability. House suitability reflects house quality, condition, cold and dampness. Neighbourhood suitability reflects the importance of social capital and of living in a safe area. Some characteristics are more important for certain population groups than for others; hence analysts should be wary of generalising about relationships between microgeographic factors and wellbeing.
Grimes, Arthur, Smith, Conal, O’Sullivan, Kimberley, Howden-Chapman, Philippa, Le Gros, Lydia and Kowalchuk Dohig, Rachel, (2023), Micro-geography and public housing tenant wellbeing, No 23_08, Working Papers, Motu Economic and Public Policy Research.
The Effect of Loneliness on Subjective Well-Being: Evidence from the UK Household Longitudinal Study 2017–2021
Abstract: Although loneliness is associated with lower levels of subjective well-being, little is known about the precise nature of this association. Theoretical arguments have indicated a negative effect of loneliness on well-being, but there are alternative explanations, such as the possibility that chronically unhappy people select themselves into loneliness. This study investigates whether loneliness is detrimental to subjective well-being by considering selection as a competing explanation. The analyses were based on three waves of panel data from Understanding Society, the UK Household Longitudinal Study (2017–2021, containing 85,083 observations from 31,223 individuals aged 16 to 103 years). Subjective well-being was measured using a single item capturing life satisfaction. Loneliness was measured both directly using a single item and indirectly using the three-item UCLA Loneliness Scale. First, pooled ordinary least squares (POLS) models were estimated to confirm previous cross-sectional findings. Subsequently, fixed-effects (FE) models were used to account for the possibility that chronically unhappy people select themselves into loneliness. The results of the POLS models showed that lonely people reported significantly lower levels of life satisfaction. This association persisted in the FE model, and the remaining association can be interpreted as evidence of the negative effect of loneliness on well-being. Further analyses showed that the results were similar for men and women and for younger and older people. Moreover, the results were remarkably robust across the two measures of loneliness and model specifications. Overall, the results support the claim that loneliness is detrimental to well-being. Thus, intervention strategies aimed at reducing loneliness may also be effective in improving well-being in the general population.
Seifert, N. The Effect of Loneliness on Subjective Well-Being: Evidence from the UK Household Longitudinal Study 2017–2021. Applied Research Quality Life (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11482-024-10302-3
The art of living well: Cultural participation and well-being
Abstract: This paper first presents a meta-analysis of the causal impact of cultural participation on well-being. The meta-analysis classifies the literature according to the strength of the evidence available and various types of cultural activities. Secondly, this paper uses data from time use surveys from Canada, France, Italy, the United Kingdom, and the United States to study individuals’ emotional responses to a series of daily activities. This is then used as a basis for an empirical assessment of the drivers of time allocation across different activities, showing that expectations of future well-being are one of the reasons why individuals decide to engage in cultural activities. Furthermore, the model helps explain why cultural participation, in spite of being one of the most enjoyable human activities, is also the least undertaken. We show that heterogeneity of preferences results in a strong selection effect in available statistics.
Murtin, Fabrice. 2024. « The Art of Living Well: Cultural Participation and Well-Being ». Paris: OCDE. https://doi.org/10.1787/0219e248-en.