Calendrier du 24 septembre 2020
Behavior seminar
Du 24/09/2020 de 14:00 à 15:00
online
HEFFETZ Ori (Cornell University)
What Do Happiness Data Mean? Evidence from a Survey of Happiness Respondents
écrit avec Daniel J. Benjamin, Jakina Debnam, Marc Fleurbaey, Miles Kimball
What notion of individual welfare do happiness questions measure? We clarify the theoretical assumptions about time horizon and weight put on others that underlie existing economic applications of self-reported well-being (SWB) data. In a survey, we ask respondents what time horizons and other individuals they had in mind when answering SWB survey questions, including commonly used measures of life satisfaction and happiness. Respondents put most weight on the immediate present and on themselves—but not enough to interpret SWB data as measuring common notions of flow utility and self-centered utility. We find differences across SWB questions and across sociodemographic groups. We discuss implications for existing and future work.