2. DIMENSIONS OF SUBJECTIVE WELL-BEING: AGING, RELIGIOSITY, AND ADAPTATION This subproject will study the use of self-reported measures of well-being, with a view to advancing the measurement of subjective well-being (SWB) and to advancing the understanding of whether and how such measures can and should be used in policy. The analysis rests on the distinction between different concepts of """"""""happiness."""""""" One concept is hedonic well-being, the continuous flow of feelings that is experienced on a moment to moment basis. The other is an overall view of how life is going, which comes from a considered judgment. Evidence suggests that these two concepts capture different aspects of human well-being, and that they respond differently to different circumstances. The project will explore this distinction using large new data sets for the United States and for more than 150 countries around the world. It will look at how the different measures of self-reported well-being are related to life circumstances, with a particular focus on age. There are several hypotheses in economics and psychology about how SWB should change over the life-cycle, and these will organize our investigations. Another line of our investigation is the role of religiosity in well-being;the research will seek to better understand both the determinants of religiosity?why people become more religious as they age, why women are more religious than men?as well as the benefits or costs of religion and whether or not they are universal around the world. Another topic is whether subjective well-being is relative: whether well-being depends on a person's own income or on income relative to that of others. One hypothesis is that adaptation can be mistaken for relativity, and that this has consequences for thinking about economic policy for the elderly, including such issues as Social Security and retirement policy. Finally, we will """"""""stress test"""""""" a battery of SWB measures over the financial crisis and the subsequent slump using daily data since January 2008. An over-arching theme is to understand whether SWB can be defended as a guide to policy, or whether the criticisms by some philosophers and economists are sufficient to rule them out. A better understanding of adaptation is also key for this last endeavor.

Public Health Relevance

The project will study the use of self-reports as measures of well-being, and will assess whether and how such measures should be used in promoting and assessing health and well-being. Well-being measures are supplements to health measures, but are also important indicators in their own right, perhaps even subsuming health and economic measures. The analysis will use data from the US and 150 other countries.

Agency
National Institute of Health (NIH)
Institute
National Institute on Aging (NIA)
Type
Research Program Projects (P01)
Project #
2P01AG005842-25
Application #
8265797
Study Section
Special Emphasis Panel (ZAG1-ZIJ-9 (02))
Project Start
Project End
Budget Start
2011-09-30
Budget End
2012-08-31
Support Year
25
Fiscal Year
2011
Total Cost
$115,180
Indirect Cost
Name
National Bureau of Economic Research
Department
Type
DUNS #
054552435
City
Cambridge
State
MA
Country
United States
Zip Code
02138
Turley, Patrick; Walters, Raymond K; Maghzian, Omeed et al. (2018) Multi-trait analysis of genome-wide association summary statistics using MTAG. Nat Genet 50:229-237
Rokicki, Slawa; Cohen, Jessica; Fink, Günther et al. (2018) Inference With Difference-in-Differences With a Small Number of Groups: A Review, Simulation Study, and Empirical Application Using SHARE Data. Med Care 56:97-105
Foverskov, Else; Glymour, M Maria; Mortensen, Erik L et al. (2018) Education and Cognitive Aging: Accounting for Selection and Confounding in Linkage of Data From the Danish Registry and Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe. Am J Epidemiol 187:2423-2430
Ho, Kate; Pakes, Ariel; Shepard, Mark (2018) The Evolution of Health Insurer Costs in Massachusetts, 2010-12. Rev Ind Organ 53:117-137
Abeliansky, Ana Lucia; Strulik, Holger (2018) How We Fall Apart: Similarities of Human Aging in 10 European Countries. Demography 55:341-359
Lübs, Lena; Peplies, Jenny; Drell, Carina et al. (2018) Cross-sectional and longitudinal factors influencing physical activity of 65 to 75-year-olds: a pan European cohort study based on the survey of health, ageing and retirement in Europe (SHARE). BMC Geriatr 18:94
Heger, Dörte; Korfhage, Thorben (2018) Care choices in Europe: To Each According to His or Her Needs? Inquiry 55:46958018780848
Dobkin, Carlos; Finkelstein, Amy; Kluender, Raymond et al. (2018) The Economic Consequences of Hospital Admissions. Am Econ Rev 102:308-352
Solé-Auró, Aïda; Jasilionis, Domantas; Li, Peng et al. (2018) Do women in Europe live longer and happier lives than men? Eur J Public Health 28:847-852
Baicker, Katherine (2018) Driving Better Health Policy: ""It's the Evidence, Stupid"": Uwe Reinhardt Memorial Lecture. Health Serv Res 53:4055-4063

Showing the most recent 10 out of 403 publications