Avec quelques jours de retard, l’équipe de l’Observatoire du bien-être vous souhaite une bonne rentrée ! L’actualité de la recherche et des politiques publiques du bien-être ne s’est évidemment pas arrêtée pendant l’été, ainsi qu’en témoigne un abondant relevé de publications. Nous soulignons en particulier les positions assez structurantes du Ministère des finances britanniques quant à l’usage des métriques de bien-être dans l’évaluation des politiques publiques – un débat qu’il nous semble important de conduire en France.

Le Cepremap vous invite à réserver votre fin d’après-midi du jeudi 23 septembre pour assister à la première édition des Dialogues interdisciplinaires, afin cette fois-ci de comprendre pourquoi la transition démographique est plus lente que prévue en Afrique.

Observatoire

Nous accueillons à partir du 06 septembre un nouvel assistant de recherche, Guillaume Gueguen. Guillaume a réalisé son mémoire de Master sur les conséquences du télétravail, un thème sur lequel il va approfondir notre compréhension cette année. Bienvenue Guillaume !

Au cas où vous les auriez manquées, nous avons publié deux Notes en juillet. Dans la première, nous explorons ce que le panel 2011 de la DEPP nous apprend du bien-être des élèves de primaire, avec ses contrastes entre genre et catégories sociales. La deuxième, notre notre de conjoncture trimestrielle, relève un sentiment de retour à la normale en juin. La plupart de nos indicateurs affichent un rebond important après un mois de mars où le moral des Français était particulièrement en berne.

CEPREMAP

Le Cepremap a le plaisir de vous inviter le 23 septembre prochain, de 17:00 à 18:30 à la première édition de ses Dialogues interdisciplinaires, au format webminaire.

Sylvie Lambert, Caroline Krafft, Aissa Diarra et John Casterline échangeront pour nous aider à comprendre pourquoi la transition démographique est-celle plus lente que prévu en Afrique.

Lien Zoom : https://us06web.zoom.us/j/83489011197?pwd=M3lkN3RYZXpjYVhBZ3JTZHlqRitmUT09

Green Book

Le Ministère des Finances britannique publie régulièrement des instructions détaillées sur l’évaluation des politiques publiques, le HM Treasury Green Book. Depuis plusieurs années, le Green Book inclut des métriques de bien-être parmi les instruments d’évaluation recommandés. Cette démarche a été renforcée cet été par la publication d’un guide additionnel dédié aux métriques de bien-être et d’un document de travail discutant la construction d’équivalents monétaires aux impacts sur la satisfaction de vie.

The Good Childhood Report 2021

La Children’s Society britannique a publié le 26 août dernier son rapport annuel sur le bien-être des enfants au Royaume-Uni. Cette année, le rapport examine plus en détail les causes d’insatisfaction chez les adolescents, en particulier l’école, les relations amicales et l’apparence physique.

Covid-19

Loneliness in the EU. Insights from surveys and online media data

Abstract: Research shows that loneliness and social isolation have harmful repercussions on mental and physical health, as well as significant consequences on social cohesion and community trust. Both loneliness and social isolation are hence increasingly recognized critical public health issues that deserve attention and need to be addressed with effective intervention strategies. The COVID-19 pandemic has also dramatically reshaped Europeans’ lives and social practices. Mobility restrictions and social distancing measures adopted to contain the spread of the virus prompted public discussions on the unintended side effects of such provisions. In particular, some fear that the toll of loneliness could have consequences long after the virus recedes.This report offers an overview of the current state of knowledge on loneliness and social isolation in the EU. It presents the main findings of two empirical analyses carried out by the JRC using two complementary sources of information, namely survey and online data. The analysis based on survey data offers a picture of recent trends in self-reported levels of loneliness across the EU and identifies the prevailing socio-demographic and geographical characteristics associated with loneliness before and during the first months of the COVID-19 pandemic. Survey data show that the COVID-19 pandemic has magnified the problem. The proportion of respondents that felt lonely frequently doubled following the COVID-19 outbreak. In addition, young adults were hit more severely. The analysis based on online data looks at trends in online media reporting on loneliness and social isolation between January 2018 and January 2021. The volume ofarticles on these topics is measured on a monthly basis and by Member State, and the collected articles are analysed in depth to identify the prevailing sentiments contained in them and detect patterns in the underlying narratives. Online media reporting on loneliness and social isolation has doubled during the pandemic. Narratives largely concerned the health consequences of loneliness. The analysis of online media reporting catalogues also typologies and examples of policy initiatives aimed at combating loneliness and social isolation. Public initiatives vary across Member States. Overall, most interventions are designed at local level and are rarely part of more systematic programmes.

Baarck, J., Balahur-Dobrescu, A., Cassio, L.G., D`hombres, B., Pasztor, Z. and Tintori, G., Loneliness in the EU. Insights from surveys and online media data, EUR 30765 EN, Publications Office of the European Union, Luxembourg, 2021, ISBN 978-92-76-40247-3, doi:10.2760/46553, JRC125873.

The Effects of the COVID-19 Pandemic on the Mental Health and Subjective Well-Being of Workers: An Event Study Based on High-Frequency Panel Data

Abstract: Using individual monthly panel data from December 2018 to December 2020, we estimate the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic and two lockdowns on the mental health and subjective well-being of German workers. Employing an event-study design using individual-specific fixed effects, we find that the first and the second wave of the pandemic reduced workers’ mental health substantially. Momentary happiness and life satisfaction also decline in response to Covid-19, but to a smaller extent. We observe adapation in our study outcomes between waves of the pandemic. This applies to a lesser extent to indicators of well-being in certain areas of life, such as satisfaction with the job and with leisure, which are negatively affected, too. Women do not seem to suffer greater well-being losses than men. However, workers in the German short-time work scheme are particularly negatively affected. Our results imply that increased anxiety about the future and restricted personal freedoms are among the drivers of the well-being impact of the pandemic.

Schmidtke, Julia, Hetschko, Clemens, Schöb, Ronnie, Stephan, Gesine, Eid, Michael and Lawes, Mario, (2021), The Effects of the COVID-19 Pandemic on the Mental Health and Subjective Well-Being of Workers: An Event Study Based on High-Frequency Panel Data, No 14638, IZA Discussion Papers, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).

Lu sur le web

Evidence of Fraud in an Influential Field Experiment About Dishonesty

Une équipe a ré-analysé la troisième expérience du célèbre article d’Ariely et al. « Signing at the beginning makes ethics salient and decreases dishonest self-reports in comparison to signing at the end », et mis en évidence que les données de cette expérience ont très probablement été fabriquées – et de manière très grossière qui plus est.

Cette analyse vient s’ajouter à l’absence d’effet dans les reproductions des autres expériences, reproductions qui ont été réalisées par les auteurs de l’article original.

Is there a loneliness epidemic?

Alors qu’on parle beaucoup d’un sentiment de solitude lié aux restrictions sanitaires, il est probablement utile de revenir sur la synthèse publiée en 2019 sur Our World in Data. Celle-ci souligne deux éléments essentiels.

En premier lieu, et contrairement à une représentation fréquente, le sentiment de solitude n’est pas un problème uniquement de personnes âgées. Les jeunes sont en proportion aussi nombreux que les plus de 75 ans à souffrir de la solitude. Chez ces derniers, le sentiment de solitude est souvent lié au décès du ou de la partenaire de vie. Hors ce facteur, le sentiment de solitude a plutôt tendance à décroître avec l’âge dans les données de cohorte.

En second lieu, les jeunes générations n’expriment pas un sentiment de solitude plus fort que ne le faisaient les générations anciennes au même âge. Hors Covid-19, il n’y avait donc pas une augmentation générale de la solitude, en particuier chez les jeunes.

Cela n’enlève rien au fait que le sentiment de solitude constitue un corrélat important d’un faible bien-être, et qu’il puisse constituer par conséquent un sujet important de politique publique. Mais aborder ce sujet sous l’angle erroné d’une augmentation tendantielle ne constitue pas une manière adaptée de l’aborder.

Esteban Ortiz-Ospina, “Is there a loneliness epidemic?”, Our World in Data, 2019-12-11.

Happy to Help: The Welfare Effects of a Nationwide Micro-Volunteering Programme

Abstract: There is a strong suggestion from the existing literature that volunteering improves the wellbeing of those who give up their time to help others, but much of it is correlational and not causal. In this paper, we estimate the wellbeing benefits from volunteering for England’s National Health Service (NHS) Volunteer Responders programme, which was set up in response to the Covid-19 pandemic. Using a sample of over 9,000 volunteers, we exploit the oversubscription of the programme and the random assignment of volunteering tasks to estimate causal wellbeing returns, across multiple counterfactuals. We find that active volunteers report significantly higher life satisfaction, feelings of worthwhileness, social connectedness, and belonging to their local communities. A social welfare analysis shows that the benefits of the programme were at least 140 times greater than its costs. Our findings advance our understanding of the ways in which pro-social behaviours can improve personal wellbeing as well as social welfare.

Dolan, Paul, Krekel, Christian, Shreedhar, Ganga, Lee, Helen, Marshall, Claire and Smith, Allison, (2021), Happy to Help: The Welfare Effects of a Nationwide Micro-Volunteering Programme, No 14431, IZA Discussion Papers, Institute of Labor Economics

Green Mobility and Well-Being

Abstract: Recent years have witnessed efforts worldwide to promote green mobility, aimed at boosting sustainable economic growth. However, how green mobility relates to travelers’ well-being remains an open question. We explore whether “green” modes of transportation (public transit and walking/cycling) are associated with higher levels of well-being in comparison to private driving, placing special focus on different types of travel (related to paid work, unpaid work, personal care, childcare, and leisure). We use the UK Time Use Survey (UKTUS) from 2014-2015, and exploit information on self-reported enjoyment during travel, as a measure of experienced well-being. We estimate Ordinary Least Squares and Random Effects regressions for each travel category, and find relative, positive effects of physical transport on enjoyment, in terms of personal care and leisure, while the relative negative effects of public transport are observed for childcare and work/paid travel, in relationship to traditional driving modes. Our evidence suggests a need to develop strategies to effectively promote mobility by physical modes, while improving the experience of public transit users.

Echeverría, Lucía, Gimenez-Nadal, J. Ignacio and Molina, José Alberto, (2021), Green Mobility and Well-Being, No 14430, IZA Discussion Papers, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).

The Welfare Effects of Time Reallocation: Evidence from Daylight Saving Time

Abstract: Daylight Saving Time (DST) is currently implemented by more than seventy countries, yet we do not have a clear knowledge of how it affects individuals’ welfare. Using a regression discontinuity design combined with a differences-in-differences approach, we find that the Spring DST causes a significant decline in life satisfaction. By inducing a reallocation of time, the transition into DST deteriorates sleep and increases time stress, which in turn affects physical and emotional health. After performing a simple cost-benefit analysis, we find evidence suggestive that ending DST would exert a positive effect on welfare, namely the wellbeing costs associated with DST exceed its benefits.

Costa-Font, Joan, Flèche, Sarah and Pagan, Ricardo, (2021), The Welfare Effects of Time Reallocation: Evidence from Daylight Saving Time, No 14570, IZA Discussion Papers, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).

Internet Access and its Implications for Productivity, Inequality, and Resilience

Abstract: About one-fifth of paid workdays will be supplied from home in the post-pandemic economy, and more than one-fourth on an earnings-weighted basis. In view of this projection, we consider some implications of home internet access quality, exploiting data from the new Survey of Working Arrangements and Attitudes. Moving to high-quality, fully reliable home internet service for all Americans (“universal access”) would raise earnings-weighted labor productivity by an estimated 1.1% in the coming years. The implied output gains are $160 billion per year, or $4 trillion when capitalized at a 4% rate. Estimated flow output payoffs to universal access are nearly three times as large in economic disasters like the COVID-19 pandemic. Our survey data also say that subjective well-being was higher during the pandemic for people with better home internet service conditional on age, employment status, earnings, working arrangements, and other controls. In short, universal access would raise productivity, and it would promote greater economic and social resilience during future disasters that inhibit travel and in-person interactions.

Barrero, Jose Maria, Bloom, Nicholas and Davis, Steven, (2021), Internet Access and its Implications for Productivity, Inequality, and Resilience, No 29102, NBER Working Papers, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.

The Economic Consequences of Increasing Sleep Among the Urban Poor

Abstract: The urban poor in developing countries face challenging living environments, which may interfere with good sleep. Using actigraphy to measure sleep objectively, we find that low-income adults in Chennai, India, sleep only 5.5 hours a night on average despite spending 8 hours in bed. Their sleep is highly interrupted, with sleep efficiency—sleep per time in bed—comparable to those with disorders such as sleep apnea or insomnia. A randomized three-week treatment providing information, encouragement, and improvements to home sleep environments increased sleep duration by 27 minutes a night by inducing more time in bed. Contrary to expert predictions and a large body of sleep research, increased nighttime sleep had no detectable effects on cognition, productivity, decision making, or well being, and led to small decreases in labor supply. In contrast, short afternoon naps at the workplace improved an overall index of outcomes by 0.12 standard deviations, with significant increases in productivity, psychological well-being, and cognition, but a decrease in work time.

Pedro Bessone, Gautam Rao, Frank Schilbach, Heather Schofield, Mattie Toma, The Economic Consequences of Increasing Sleep Among the Urban Poor, The Quarterly Journal of Economics, Volume 136, Issue 3, August 2021, Pages 1887–1941, https://doi.org/10.1093/qje/qjab013

Privations matérielles et sociales depuis 2013

Résumé : Cet Insee Résultats explore la privation matérielle et sociale déclarée dans l’enquête Statistiques sur les Ressources et les Conditions de Vie (SRCV). L’indicateur européen de privation matérielle et sociale mesure la part de la population se trouvant dans l’incapacité de couvrir les dépenses liées à au moins cinq éléments de la vie courante sur les 13 considérés comme souhaitables, voire nécessaires, pour avoir un niveau de vie acceptable. Il est décliné selon l’âge, le sexe, le niveau de vie du ménage, la composition de la famille, le diplôme, la catégorie socioprofessionnelle, la situation vis-à-vis de l’emploi, la taille de l’unité urbaine de la commune de résidence et la limitation dans les activités courantes.

Deux séries de tableaux sont mis à la disposition selon le champ considéré. Une première série de tableaux présente l’indicateur de privation matérielle et sociale et ses 13 items calculé sur l’ensemble de la population ; la seconde série détaille la privation matérielle et sociale selon des caractéristiques individuelles disponibles uniquement pour la population des 16 ans ou plus.