Does wealth accumulation impact subjective well-being? Within a country, household wealth has been shown to improve individual well-being by providing a safety net of protection against negative income shocks, by allowing current and expected consumption flows, and by its potential use as a collateral. At the aggregate level, direct evidence about the relationship between national wealth and happiness is almost non-existent, owing to data limitations and statistical identification problems. However, aggregate wealth impacts well-being indirectly, via positive channels, such as institutional quality and improvement in health, life expectancy, and education. Wealth also brings about negative environmental degradations and other damages. The stock of accumulated wealth is also likely to affect happiness indirectly, via its influence on the rate of GDP growth, because both the level of income flows and the rate of income growth have been shown to be factors of higher well-being.
Does wealth accumulation impact subjective well-being? Within a country, household wealth has been shown to improve individual well-being by providing a safety net of protection against negative income shocks, by allowing current and expected consumption flows, and by its potential use as a collateral. At the aggregate level, direct evidence about the relationship between national wealth and happiness is almost non-existent, owing to data limitations and statistical identification problems. However, aggregate wealth impacts well-being indirectly, via positive channels, such as institutional quality and improvement in health, life expectancy, and education. Wealth also brings about negative environmental degradations and other damages. The stock of accumulated wealth is also likely to affect happiness indirectly, via its influence on the rate of GDP growth, because both the level of income flows and the rate of income growth have been shown to be factors of higher well-being.
Auteur(s)
Claudia Senik1, 2, 3
1
PSE -
Paris School of Economics
( 301309 )
- 48 boulevard Jourdan 75014 Paris
- France
Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne ( 7550 )
;
École normale supérieure - Paris ( 59704 )
;
Université Paris Sciences et Lettres ( 564132 )
;
École des hautes études en sciences sociales ( 99539 )
;
École des Ponts ParisTech ( 301545 )
;
Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique ( 441569 )
;
Institut National de Recherche pour l’Agriculture, l’Alimentation et l’Environnement ( 577435 )
2
PSE -
Paris-Jourdan Sciences Economiques
( 139754 )
- 48 boulevard Jourdan 75014 Paris
- France
École normale supérieure - Paris ( 59704 )
;
Université Paris Sciences et Lettres ( 564132 )
;
Institut National de la Recherche Agronomique USC1336 ( 92114 )
;
École des hautes études en sciences sociales ( 99539 )
;
École des Ponts ParisTech ( 301545 )
;
Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique UMR8545 ( 441569 )
3
UP4 -
Université Paris-Sorbonne
( 123821 )
- 1 rue Victor Cousin - 75005 Paris
- France
Langue du document
Anglais
Nom de la revue
Oxford Review of Economic Policy
(ISSN : 0266-903X, ISSN électronique : 1460-2121)
Publié par Oxford University Press (OUP)
Revue non référencée dans Sherpa-Romeo
Vulgarisation
Non
Comité de lecture
Oui
Audience
Non spécifiée
Date de publication
2014-04
Volume
30
Numéro
1
Page/Identifiant
92-108
Domaine(s)
Sciences de l'Homme et Société/Economies et finances
I - Health, Education, and Welfare/I.I3 - Welfare, Well-Being, and Poverty/I.I3.I31 - General Welfare, Well-Being
E - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics/E.E0 - General/E.E0.E01 - Measurement and Data on National Income and Product Accounts and Wealth • Environmental Accounts
D - Microeconomics/D.D1 - Household Behavior and Family Economics/D.D1.D14 - Household Saving • Personal Finance
Financement
Ce travail a bénéficié d'une aide de l'Etat gérée par l'Agence Nationale de la Recherche au titre du programme « Investissements d'avenir » portant la référence ANR-10-LABX-93-01.
This work was supported by the French National Research Agency, through the program Investissements d'Avenir, ANR-10-LABX-93-01.