| Title: |
SSE/EFI Working Paper Series in Economics and Finance No 697 Competition and well-being |
| Authors: |
Justina Av Fischer; Jel-codes I |
| Contributors: |
The Pennsylvania State University CiteSeerX Archives |
| Source: |
http://swopec.hhs.se/hastef/papers/hastef0697.pdf. |
| Publication Year: |
2008 |
| Collection: |
CiteSeerX |
| Subject Terms: |
Subjective well-being; happiness; utility; competition; rule of law; completeness of contract; laboratory experiment; World Values Survey |
| Description: |
Empirical research on the role of economic institutions for subjective well-being is still widely lacking, while recent economic-experimental outcomes suggest that experienced utility may depend on the intensity of market competition. This paper is the first to empirically analyze the implication of market competition for subjective well-being using real-life survey data on 80,000 individuals in more than 60 countries from the World Values Survey 1997-2001. In support of our hypothesis, we find that market competition aggravates the impact of individual’s bargaining position in economic transactions on her subjective well-being – compared to the least powerful in society. Put differently, we find that market competition enlarges the happiness differences caused by cleavages in socio-economic position. Our results also suggest that competition-induced welfare changes are not gender-specific, while a stronger rule of law appears to prevent the generation of such additional benefits or losses. Particularly the latter results call for further economic-experimental corroboration in the laboratory, but also bear important policy implications. Keywords |
| Document Type: |
text |
| File Description: |
application/pdf |
| Language: |
English |
| Relation: |
http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/summary?doi=10.1.1.597.163; http://swopec.hhs.se/hastef/papers/hastef0697.pdf |
| Availability: |
http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/summary?doi=10.1.1.597.163; http://swopec.hhs.se/hastef/papers/hastef0697.pdf |
| Rights: |
Metadata may be used without restrictions as long as the oai identifier remains attached to it. |
| Accession Number: |
edsbas.481FE4CB |
| Database: |
BASE |