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Well-Being Measures for Public Policy

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Well-Being Measures for Public Policy

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    1. Well-Being Measures for Public Policy Ed Diener University of Illinois, and Senior Scientist, The Gallup Organization United Nations Development Program October 8, 2008

    2. Subjective Well-Being (SWB) People’s evaluations of their lives – in both thoughts and feelings. For example: Life satisfaction Marital, work, & health satisfaction Pleasant emotions, e.g. Joy, affection, & trust Low negative emotions, e.g., anger & depression

    3. Overview Subjective well-being helps reveal the progress of societies – quality of life It provides useful new information to policy makers -- with some policy examples Also SWB directly benefits societies – health, longevity, prosperity, and peace Finally, I will answer objections

    4. Gallup World Poll

    5. Culture and Well-Being

    6. WHY SWB? Why not just measure income, education, and longevity – the HDI?

    7. Limitations of Existing Indicators, Including the HDI What they do not measure e.g., Trust Air pollution Gender equality Job security Green urban space Crime etc.

    8. Characteristics of Nations Missed by HDI?

    9. SWB measures more than the HDI: Correlates of National Life Satisfaction Income .82 Longevity .73 Political stability .52 Trust other people .48 Unemployment -.44 Time with family/friends .41

    10. Example: Crime Assault rate adds to the prediction of Life Satisfaction beyond the HDI

    11. 2. HDI Has Low Ceiling Differentiation only for less developed nations

    12. 3. Need ever-expanding lists of measures to capture all elements of quality of life How to include them all? How to weight them?

    13. How large a list? Commuting time Factory emissions Greenery Support for science Literary achevements Support for the arts Litter rates Quality of roads Building safety Rape rates Parks Tertiary education Education gender equality Income equality Unemployment rate Inflation rate Political corruption Business corruption Child abuse Infant mortality Longevity AIDS rates School dropout rate Juvenile delinquency Free time Youth sports participation Recycling rates Exercise rates Consumption of junk foods Consumption of animal protein Locally grown produce Etc Etc Etc Etc Etc Etc Etc Etc

    14. How to Weight? Health, education, equality, crime, pollution – all weighted the same? Example: U.S.A. Cities 333 cities – many can be rated first OR last, depending on weighting of indicators!

    15. 4. Whose List to Use? Amartye Sen; Martha Nussbaum? U.S. “experts” (elites) U.S. example: The fine arts versus roller-derby SWB measures are democratic -- from the people -- what they value and weight

    16. SWB Weights and Integrates The Things About Which People Care, the Optimal Weights, and The Direction of Influence!

    17. 5. Also measurement problems with economic and other measures Subjectivity in contents – GDP Missed – black & grey markets, & bartering Unreliable in poor nations How to integrate different approaches to measuring GNP

    18. 6. Other Measures Miss Something Very Important! HDI Robots – educated, long-living with money Don’t we want more than orderly worker-bees? Don’t we also want people leading meaningful and rewarding lives?

    19. Why SWB ? It is people’s evaluations of their lives – surely we want these to be positive! Democratic! People rate it as very important, even the most important. They want it! Well-being is a core component of mental health, and mental illness likely largest cause of illness-related misery in the 21st century Behavioral benefits of well-being

    20. Importance Ratings (1-9) Happiness Wealth Health OVERALL (28 nations) 8.0 6.8 7.9 Chile 8.6 6.9 8.1 Singapore 8.4 7.1 8.0 Egypt 8.1 7.6 8.0 USA 8.1 6.7 7.6 Japan 7.4 6.6 7.8

    21. Disease Burden Misery burden from mental illnesses likely to be largest by 2020, yet missed by longevity statistics Autism, Schizophrenia, bipolar disorder This burden reflected by SWB indicators

    22. BUT Is happiness good? Is it functional?

    24. The Error of Flaubert To be stupid, selfish, and have good health are three requirements for happiness, though if stupidity is lacking, all is lost. Gustave Flaubert

    25. Our Research Shows that Happiness is Beneficial Flaubert 180 degrees off

    26. Social Benefits of Being Happy More friends Better and longer marriages Social capital: Trust

    27. Work Benefits Higher supervisor ratings at work Better “organizational citizens” Higher incomes USA Australia Russia

    28. Societal Benefits Volunteering Pro-peace attitudes Cooperative

    29. Health Benefits of SWB 1. Illness Immune, cardiovascular, etc. 2. Longevity

    30. Longevity: The Nun Study Danner, Snowden, & Friesen, U Kentucky 1. Nuns autobiographies at age 22 Expression of positive emotions 2. Happy and less happy nuns living in same life circumstances through lifespan How long do they live?

    32. Psychologists Happy live about 6 years longer

    33. Predicting National Mean Life Expectancy Corr. Beta r B GDP/Capita .66 .12 Health Expenditures .47 .01 Life Satisfaction .76 .65

    34. Predicting National Life Expectancy When control GDP and Health Expenditures first: SWB – Affect and Life Satisfaction – add 16% more variance in predicting longevity!

    35. In sum: National Accounts of Well-Being People believe well-being is important It leads to several desirable outcomes It helps with social capital We ought to be measuring it!

    36. Policy Examples Economics Unemployment Environment Commuting Air pollution

    37. Slow & Incomplete Adaptation to Unemployment (Mostly Re-Employed, and Controlling for Income)

    38. The Environment: Commuting Life Satisfaction is consistently lower for those who have long commutes Rising commute time resulting in higher incomes does not raise LS

    39. The Environment: Smokestack Emissions Life satisfaction Quasi-experimental study in Germany

    40. Objections 1. Can’t measure “happiness” validly -- must look at “behavior” 2. People adapt to their conditions 3. Happy pigs and happy mafia 4. Happiness is an individual affair; we don’t want paternalism

    41. Measurement – Objectivity? SWB measures have proven validity

    42. The: “Would you move?” Diener Measure of Validity Life Evaluation Ladder Ideal to Worst (10 to 0) Denmark 8.0 Finland 7.7 Switzerland 7.5 Netherlands 7.5 Spain 7.2 Ireland 7.1 Togo 3.2 Cambodia 3.6 Sierra Leone 3.6 Georgia 3.7 Zimbabwe 3.8 West Bank 4.7

    43. Measurement Validity: SWB Measures Correlate With: Suicide (individual and national) Physiological (brain, hormones, immune) Informant reports (family and friends) Interview ratings Reaction-time to stimuli tasks

    44. Surveys in Economics Survey measures used in GNP Subjective decisions about how to sum those numbers Subjective reports do have issues, yes, but no more than counting Examples: Education, Unemployment, Eastern bloc

    45. Objection 2: Adaptation: Life Satisfaction & Disability People adapt to bad and good conditions The “Happy Poor” Happy Slaves?

    46. Adaptation?

    47. 3. Happy Mafia & Pigs? Bad people, dumb people, etc. can be happy Yes, and they can be: Rich Educated Long-lived too Happiness is NOT the only value; other things matter too

    48. Other Values More Important? For example: capabilities & functionings Maybe, but so what? This does not mean SWB is not also very important!

    49. 4. Paternalism CLAIM Happiness is an individual affair, not the business of governments

    50. Paternalism?

    51. Conclusions SWB can simultaneously reflect many desirable aspects of life In addition, it is valuable for nations; it helps functioning! It can be validly measured It can add information for policy and individual decisions beyond existing measures

    52. Using SWB Measures OECD E.U. Stats Canada C.D.C. in USA

    53. The Gallup Organization would give the U.N. data for two (more?) years: Ladder for 140+ nations Positive emotions of nations Negative emotions (e.g., depression) of nations

    54. References Well-being for public policy Diener, Lucas, Schimmack, & Helliwell (2009), Oxford U Press Beyond money: Toward an economy of well-being Psychological Science in the Public Interest Diener and Seligman, 2004

    55. “The most authoritative and informative book about happiness ever ^ written”

    56. Thank You! Questions? Discussion?

    59. Societal Policies? Pleasant Emotions—Enjoyment etc. Highest Lowest New Zealand 88 % Georgia 43 % Ireland 88 % Pakistan 48 % Netherlands 87 % Armenia 49 % Costa Rica 87 % Palestine 50 % UK 86 % Sierra L. 51 %

    60. OECD Nations Affect Balance (PA –NA) Women Men Ireland .69 .66 New Zealand .65 .66 Sweden .65 .61 Netherlands .62 .63 Canada .62 .61 Denmark .61 .61 Australia .61 .61 Austria .61 .60 Mexico .60 .62 Norway .60 .58 Switzerland .58 .57 U.S.A. .56 .61 U.K. .56 .54 Finland .53 .52 Women Men Japan .53 .43 Germany .52 .56 Belgium .51 .57 France .50 .51 Poland .50 .50 Spain .48 .58 Czech Rep. .48 .50 S. Korea .44 .35 Italy .42 .42 Hungary .41 .48 Slovak Rep. .41 .39 Greece .31 .42 Portugal .30 .44 Turkey .17 .20

    61. More on Diminishing Returns:

    62. 15 Highest on Ladder Denmark 8.0 Finland 7.7 Switzerland 7.5 Netherlands 7.5 Canada 7.4 Norway 7.4 Sweden 7.4 Australia 7.4 New Zealand 7.3 Belgium 7.3 United States 7.2 Israel 7.2 Venezuela 7.2 Spain 7.2 Ireland 7.1

    63. Lowest Life Ladder Benin 3.3 Cambodia 3.6 Sierra Leone 3.6 Tanzania 3.7 Georgia 3.7 Uganda 3.7 Niger 3.7 Ethiopia 3.8 Burkina Faso 3.8 Zimbabwe 3.8 Cameroon 3.9 Madagascar 4.0 Kenya 4.0 Mali 4.0

    65. Proposal for National Indicators of Well-Being – and International Indicators Long overdue Resistance – based on outmoded philosophy & data Ignorance of newest findings

    66. Health Research Funding Disease burden computations: Life Years and Misery Use SWB instead of Willingness-to-pay Paul Dolan, UK health economist

    67. 4. Optimal Amount? Can there be too much or too little? Examples: Divorce rate Percent in science & engineering Tertiary education for all

    68. Example: Divorce Rate Is 0 percent good? No freedom Is 55 percent better? Unstable relationships & childrearing Optimum level Reflected in well-being

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