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What Do Happiness Data Mean? Theory and Survey Evidence / Daniel J. Benjamin, Jakina Debnam Guzman, Marc Fleurbaey, Ori Heffetz, Miles S. Kimball.
- Format:
- Book
- Author/Creator:
- Benjamin, Daniel J.
- Series:
- Working Paper Series (National Bureau of Economic Research) no. w28438.
- NBER working paper series no. w28438
- Language:
- English
- Physical Description:
- 1 online resource: illustrations (black and white);
- Place of Publication:
- Cambridge, Mass. National Bureau of Economic Research 2021.
- Summary:
- What utility notion--e.g., flow/lifetime, self/family-centered--do self-reported well-being (SWB) questions measure? Existing applications make different assumptions regarding the (i) life domains, (ii) time horizons, and (iii) other-regarding preferences captured by SWB data. To obtain relevant evidence, we ask survey respondents what they had in mind regarding (i)-(iii) when answering commonly used--life satisfaction, happiness, ladder--and new SWB questions. We find that respondents' self-reports differ from researchers' assumptions, and differ across SWB questions and sociodemographic groups. At the same time, simple SWB-question wording tweaks are effective in moving self-reports towards desired interpretations. We outline actionable suggestions for SWB researchers.
- Notes:
- Print version record
- February 2021.
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