To make evidence-based policy on well-being, policy-makers need information on what causes well- being and on how well-being affects their other objectives (e.g. physical health). Both needs could be satisfied if we had adequate causal models of the development of well-being, physical health etc over the life-course. Policy-makers could then use these models to help evaluate the long-term effects of different types of intervention at different ages - selecting those that gave the biggest improvement to well-being (or other objectives) per net dollar spent. (The model itself helps us to estimate the financial savings resulting from the expenditures.) To take forward this agenda we have four specific aims.
Aim 1. Using standard birth cohort surveys, we shall estimate a path-model of well-being over the life course. There will be eight state variables: well-being; conduct/criminality; physical health; cognitive achievement; and (as adults) employment; welfare receipt; income; and family functioning. Each variable at each age will be regressed on previous values of all variables, background variables and on shocks. The British Cohort Study (BCS) and UK National Child Development Study (NCDS) will enable us to estimate these models up to middle age. But these data have the problem that one variable at age t may be related to the same variable at an earlier age (or another variable), without the relationship being causal. The two variables may be determined by a third omitted variable, including most obviously genetic endowment and other unmeasured characteristics of family background. Using identical twins reared together enables us to control for these.
Aim 2. Using twin surveys from the UK, Norway and Sweden, we shall estimate similar models to before - once using the data on who is twinned with whom, and once not using it. This will give us a good idea about how far the models in (1) above overestimate the true causal links. (Twin data are not sufficient to replace the earlier data altogether.) Aim 3. Using surveys of ageing, we shall complement (1) with models covering the later years of life. The focus will be especially on how well-being affects physical health and vice versa. Attention will be paid to the moderating effects of social class and social support and to the impact of specific life transitions such as retirement and bereavement. The surveys used will be mainly the English Longitudinal Survey of Ageing, the Whitehall II study and the U.S. Health and Retirement Survey.
Aim 4. Using data on well-being interventions, we shall show how these can be used together with the models already estimated to estimate the long-term benefits and savings from these interventions. Policy- makers will be increasingly interested in the long-term benefits from different possible well-being interventions (and in the savings which could result in reduced costs of health care, social care, criminality and so on). But many intervention studies only tell us the short-run effects. Long-term models can be used to simulate longer-term effects. (Where long-term follow-ups are available we can usefully compare the rate at which their effects fade with the rate of fading obtained from the models we estimate.) The measures of well-being used in these surveys vary but most include for adults life-satisfaction and malaise, and for children emotional well-being and conduct. One feature of the research will be the interaction between emotional well-being/malaise and conduct/criminality. The programme will be a fully-integrated collaboration between economists, psychologists, epidemiologists and psychiatrists.

Public Health Relevance

To improve the well-being of the population, policy-makers need to know what are the main determinants of well-being and how a person's well-being affects their physical health. This program will improve information on this by focusing on how people's lives evolve over the course of life. It will also show policy makers how they can use the data to choose the most cost-effective approaches to improving well-being.

Agency
National Institute of Health (NIH)
Institute
National Institute on Aging (NIA)
Type
Research Project (R01)
Project #
5R01AG040640-05
Application #
8897217
Study Section
Special Emphasis Panel ()
Program Officer
Nielsen, Lisbeth
Project Start
2011-09-30
Project End
2016-04-30
Budget Start
2015-05-01
Budget End
2016-04-30
Support Year
5
Fiscal Year
2015
Total Cost
$222,130
Indirect Cost
$16,454
Name
London School/Economics/Political Sci
Department
Type
DUNS #
769123159
City
London
State
Country
United Kingdom
Zip Code
WC2 -2AE
De Neve, Jan-Emmanuel; Ward, George; De Keulenaer, Femke et al. (2018) The Asymmetric Experience of Positive and Negative Economic Growth: Global Evidence Using Subjective Well-Being Data. Rev Econ Stat 100:362-375
Cheng, Terence C; Costa-I-Font, Joan; Powdthavee, Nattavudh (2018) DO YOU HAVE TO WIN IT TO FIX IT? A Longitudinal Study of Lottery Winners and Their Health-Care Demand. Am J Health Econ 4:26-50
Lekfuangfu, Warn N; Powdthavee, Nattavudh; Warrinnier, Nele et al. (2018) LOCUS OF CONTROL AND ITS INTERGENERATIONAL IMPLICATIONS FOR EARLY CHILDHOOD SKILL FORMATION. Econ J (London) 128:298-329
Flèche, Sarah; Layard, Richard (2017) Do More of Those in Misery Suffer from Poverty, Unemployment or Mental Illness? Kyklos (Oxford) 70:27-41
Cheng, Terence C; Powdthavee, Nattavudh; Oswald, Andrew J (2017) LONGITUDINAL EVIDENCE FOR A MIDLIFE NADIR IN HUMAN WELL-BEING: RESULTS FROM FOUR DATA SETS. Econ J (London) 127:126-142
Barazzetta, Marta; Ghislandi, Simone (2017) Family Income and Material Deprivation: Do They Matter for Sleep Quality and Quantity in Early Life? Evidence From a Longitudinal Study. Sleep 40:
Clark, Andrew E; D'Ambrosio, Conchita; Ghislandi, Simone (2016) ADAPTATION TO POVERTY IN LONG-RUN PANEL DATA. Rev Econ Stat 98:591-600
Cetre, Sophie; Clark, Andrew E; Senik, Claudia (2016) Happy People Have Children: Choice and Self-Selection into Parenthood. Eur J Popul 32:445-473
Charpentier, Caroline J; De Neve, Jan-Emmanuel; Li, Xinyi et al. (2016) Models of Affective Decision Making: How Do Feelings Predict Choice? Psychol Sci 27:763-75
Buddelmeyer, Hielke; Powdthavee, Nattavudh (2016) Can having internal locus of control insure against negative shocks? Psychological evidence from panel data. J Econ Behav Organ 122:88-109

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