Nous avons ici le triste devoir de rappeler le décès de Daniel Cohen, directeur du Cepremap, le 20 août dernier. La disparition de cette figure majeure du paysage intellectuel français est également une immense perte pour l’Observatoire du bien-être. L’Observatoire fut créé sous ses auspices, et constamment soutenu par sa bienveillance. Quelques semaines avant sa disparition, il nous encourageait encore à nouer de nouveaux partenariats et à développer de nouveaux outils à l’usage de l’action publique. Nous poursuivrons désormais sans lui, mais en sa mémoire, la mission qu’il avait initiée.

L’émission du 31 août dernier d’Entendez-vous l’éco, sur France Culture, lui rend hommage au travers des voix d’Esther Duflo, Antoine Bozio et Camille Landais.

Observatoire

Recrutement : assistant-e de recherche

L’Observatoire du bien-être recherche un-e assistant-e de recherche à temps plein, pour une entrée en fonctions en octobre 2023. N’hésitez pas à faire circuler la fiche de poste.

Le Bien-être des Français – Juin 2023

Après la contestation de la réforme des retraites, le trimestre de mars à juin devait être un temps d’apaisement. La vague de juin de l’enquête, intervenue avant les émeutes qui ont marqué ce mois, affiche une légère amélioration des indicateurs de bien-être subjectif, en particulier les perspectives d’avenir individuel et les perspectives financières.

Mathieu Perona, « Le Bien-être des Français – Juin 2023 », Notes de l’Observatoire du bien-être (Paris: CEPREMAP, 20 juillet 2023), https://www.cepremap.fr/2023/07/note-de-lobservatoire-du-bien-etre-n2023-10-le-bien-etre-des-francais-juin-2023/.

Des nouvelles de Twitter

Suis au rachat de Twitter par Elon Musk, les accès des chercheurs aux données de la plate-forme de microblogging ont été coupés le 21 juin dernier. Notre Baromètre en ligne fondé sur les messages postés présente depuis des séries qui s’arrêtent à cette date, en attendant de savoir si une autre solution accessible sera proposée au monde de la recherche.

En termes de communication, la nouvelle direction de Twitter a également supprimé les outils externes ainsi que l’outil interne facilitant l’administration simultanée de plusieurs comptes, ce qui va limiter notre activité sur cette plate-forme. Au moment où nous écrivons ces lignes, plusieurs autres structures se présentent comme des alternatives, notamment Bluesky, co-fondé par le fondateur de Twitter, Threads, lancé par Meta explicitement comme un concurrent de Twitter, et Mastodon, qui fait partie de l’écosystème du Fédiverse, auquel tente de s’arrimer Meta.

Nous sommes pour l’instant présents sur Mastodon, avec les comptes de l’Observatoire du bien-être et celui du Cepremap. Nous vous invitons à nous y rejoindre. Pour mémoire, Mastodon est un réseau décentralisé. Il faut donc choisir pour vous y inscrire un serveur (instance). Nous avons sélectionné social.sciences.fr (francophone, orienté sciences sociales) pour l’OBE, et econtwitter (plutôt anglophone, destiné à accueillir les économistes actifs sur Twitter) pour le Cepremap.

Satisfaction moyenne et part d’insatisfaits

En lisant notre récente Note sur la relation entre revenu et satisfaction au travail1, un journaliste m’a demandé comment mettre en perspective les valeurs moyennes calculées. Plus précisément, pourquoi pouvais-je dire qu’une satisfaction au travail moyenne de 6,8 (chez les ouvriers non qualifiés) était une valeur faible, et inquiétante ?

Mathieu Perona, « Satisfaction moyenne et part d’insatisfaits », Billet, Carnet de l’Observatoire du Bien-être du CEPREMAP (blog), 6 juillet 2023, https://obe.hypotheses.org/713.

Insatisfaction et défiance dans les grands ensembles

Dans le contexte des violences urbaines actuelles, il n’est peut-être pas inutile de dresser un rapide portrait du mal-être et de la défiance en fonction du type de quartier. Les grands ensembles en France se caractérisent par des niveaux de pauvreté, de précarité, d’insatisfaction dans la vie et de défiance plus élevés que les autres types de quartier. Si on regarde en fonction de l’âge, les jeunes ne sont pas plus touchés par l’insatisfaction : ce sont plutôt les personnes qui ont l’âge d’être leurs parents qui sont plus insatisfaits de leur vie qu’ailleurs.

Mathieu Perona, « Insatisfaction et défiance dans les grands ensembles », Billet, Carnet de l’Observatoire du Bien-être du CEPREMAP (blog), 3 juillet 2023, https://obe.hypotheses.org/651.

Adopting telework: The causal impact of working from home on subjective well-being

Abstract: We study the impact of work from home (WFH) on subjective well-being during the Covid period, where self-selection of individuals into telework is ruled out, at least part of the time, by stay-at-home orders. We use a difference-in-differences approach with individual fixed effects and identify the specific impact of switching to telecommuting, separately from any other confounding factor. In particular, our identification strategy avoids the influence of interpersonal heterogeneity by exploiting the multiple entries into WFH, by the same individuals, at different times. On average over the period, switching to WFH, especially full-time, worsens mental health. We also find a positive but imprecisely measured impact of part-time WFH on life satisfaction. However, this hides a dynamic evolution, whereby the initial deterioration gives place to an adaptation process after a couple of months. We also uncover a particularly pronounced fall in subjective well-being of women with children, especially in the first months; this could be associated with home-schooling.

Guillaume Gueguen et Claudia Senik, « Adopting Telework: The Causal Impact of Working from Home on Subjective Well-Being », British Journal of Industrial Relations, s. d., 1‑37, https://doi.org/10.1111/bjir.12761

Enfin arrivé à publication, ce travail était la base de notre note de 2022, Adopter le télétravail ? L’impact du travail à distance sur le bien-être.

Time-Use and Subjective Well-Being: Is Diversity Really the Spice of Life?

Abstract: Using the American and the French time-use surveys, we examine whether people have a preference for a more diversified mix of activities, in the sense that they experience greater well-being when their time schedule contains many different activities rather than is concentrated on a very small number. This could be due to decreasing marginal utility, as is assumed for goods consumption, if each episode of time is conceived as yielding a certain level of utility per se. With returns to specialization, people would then face a trade-off between efficiency and diversity in choosing how to allocate time. We examine these issues and investigate potential gender differences, considering both instantaneous feelings and life satisfaction.

Naomi Friedman-Sokuler et Claudia Senik, « Time-Use and Subjective Well-Being: Is Diversity Really the Spice of Life? », IZA Discussion Paper (Institute of Labor Economics (IZA), avril 2023), https://econpapers.repec.org/paper/izaizadps/dp16090.htm.

Cepremap

Nous nous éloignons un peu de notre domaine habituel pour signaler la parution d’un article dédié à la contribution de Dynare à l’histoire de la pensée et de la modélisation macroéconomiques.

Abstract: According to its creator Michel Juillard, Dynare is a “pre-processor and a collection of routines” aimed at solving and estimating non-linear rational expectation models. This article focuses on the role of Dynare in the dissemination of dynamic stochastic general equilibrium (DSGE) models in academia and policymaking institutions. The case of Dynare highlights how the dissemination across the profession of theoretical principles and modelling practices cannot be thought independently from (at least) two general issues that involve designing computer tools for macroeconomics: tractability (i.e. the existence of a computer algorithm that can solve a mathematical problem using ‘reasonable’ resources) and portability (i.e. the material ability of circulating and transferring a computer algorithm across models, people, and institutions). In this article, we document how the origins and the development of Dynare over three decades was guided by these two issues.

Beatrice Cherrier, Aurélien Saïdi, et Francesco Sergi, « “Write Your Model Almost as You Would on Paper and Dynare Will Take Care of the Rest!” : Dynare and the History of Macroeconomics », SSRN Scholarly Paper (Rochester, NY, 3 août 2023), https://papers.ssrn.com/abstract=4531026.

Tableaux de bord du bien-être

Mise à jour du tableau de bord britannique

L’ONS britannique vient de publier une mise à jour de son tableau de bord du bien-être au Royaume-Uni. Le nombre d’indicateurs passe ainsi de 44 à 60, afin de couvrir des éléments identifiés comme importants dans la littérature. Nous relevons en particulier la confiance dans l’avenir, la satisfaction envers les relations sociales, le sentiment d’intégration dans la communauté locale, la satisfaction quant à l’équilibre des temps de vie, ainsi que des mesures objective de qualité de l’environnement. Du côté des métriques déjà présentes, le passage de la part de personne satisfaites à celle de personnes peu satisfaites comme indicateur représente un changement d’optique important.

L’Australie se dote d’un tableau de bord de pilotage

Après la Nouvelle-Zélande – Aotearoa, l’Australie a lancé son premier tableau de bord, Measuring What Matters. Dans la droite ligne du rapport Stiglitz, ce tableau de bord combine indicateurs subjectifs – satisfaction dans la vie, satisfaction au travail – et objectifs, pour une vision d’ensemble de ce qui compte vraiment. Un total de 50 indicateurs sont analysés et détaillés selon des sous-populations pertinentes. Par exemple, la satisfaction dans la vie est présentée selon l’âge, le degré de handicap, de santé mentale ou l’orientation sexuelle, permettant de mettre en évidence les inégalités de bien-être.

https://treasury.gov.au/policy-topics/measuring-what-matters/dashboard

Lu sur le web

Abstract: Initial evidence suggests that sharing positive news with others on social media may have short-term emotional benefits for young people. However, little is currently known about whether these capitalization processes have long-term implications for adolescent well-being. Drawing upon the broaden-and-build theory of positive psychology, this study examined the longitudinal reciprocal relationship between capitalization on social media and adolescent life satisfaction. The moderating role of trait optimism was also determined. Three-wave panel data were collected from Belgian adolescents between January and October 2020 (N = 1,125; M age = 15.38, SD = 1.44; Girls = 48.4%), and data were analyzed using a random intercept cross-lagged panel model. No significant cross-lagged relationships were found between capitalization on social media and adolescent life satisfaction at the within-person level. Moreover, the relationships were not moderated by trait optimism. Null results suggest that the antecedents and effects of capitalization on social media may be momentary in nature rather than manifested in long-term associations. Findings therefore add to the limited literature regarding social media’s positive role in adolescent well-being.

Edward John Noon et al., « Making the Good Better? Investigating the Long-Term Associations Between Capitalization on Social Media and Adolescents’ Life Satisfaction », Media Psychology 0, no 0 (27 juin 2023): 1‑25, https://doi.org/10.1080/15213269.2023.2227941.

Abstract

Background: Concerns have been raised that social media use causes mental health problems in adolescents, but findings are mixed, and effects are typically small. The present inquiry is the first to measure diagnostically-defined symptoms of depression and anxiety, examining whether changes in social media behavior predict changes in levels of symptoms from age 10 to 16, and vice versa. We differentiate between activity related to one’s own vs. others’ social media content or pages (i.e., self-oriented: posting updates, photos vs other-oriented: liking, commenting).

Methods: A birth-cohort of Norwegian children was interviewed about their social media at ages 10, 12, 14 and 16 years (n = 810). Symptoms of depression, social anxiety and generalized anxiety were captured by psychiatric interviews and data was analyzed using Random Intercept Cross-lagged Panel Modeling.

Results: Within-person changes in self- and other oriented social media behavior were unrelated to within-person changes in symptoms of depression or anxiety two years later, and vice versa. This null finding was evident across all timepoints and for both sexes. Conclusions: The frequency of posting, liking, and commenting is unrelated to future symptoms of depression and anxiety. This is true also when gold standard measures of depression and anxiety are applied.

Silje Steinsbekk, Jacqueline Nesi, et Lars Wichstrøm, « Social Media Behaviors and Symptoms of Anxiety and Depression. A Four-Wave Cohort Study from Age 10–16 Years. », Computers in Human Behavior, 1 juillet 2023, 107859, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chb.2023.107859.

Who Benefits from Domestic Market Integration?

Abstract: The historical integration of economic markets between and within nations has profoundly altered human society. Nonetheless, existing literature on this topic has seldom gone beyond the economic repercussions of this phenomenon. Accordingly, this study examines the relationship between domestic market integration and subjective well-being, of which very little is known. Taking China as a case, we match individual-level data from a longitudinal survey with province-level data to construct panel data and use the fixed effect model to estimate the welfare effect of market integration. Our studies suggest that market integration has a positive effect on welfare overall, contributing to approximately 11.4% of the rise in life satisfaction among Chinese residents from 2010 to 2018. In addition, we found that low-income populations had a relatively large increase in subjective well-being, which implies that market integration is a significant mechanism of redistribution and contributes to reduced happiness inequality. We also discuss the different effects of goods, labor, and capital markets, which are further impacted by heterogeneity in China’s household registration (hukou) system and labor skills. Our findings emphasize the broader importance of reduced market segmentation and are of relevance to policymakers and stakeholders involved in economic reform.

Xin Fan, Shan Jin, et Zeyu Chen, « Who Benefits from Domestic Market Integration? », Journal of Happiness Studies, 23 juin 2023, https://doi.org/10.1007/s10902-023-00672-0.

Le bien-être à l’école

Résumé de l’épisode : Dans ce premier épisode du podcast, ce sont Emilie Martelet, enseignante de SVT investie dans les pédagogies coopératives et le développement durable, Pascale Haag, chercheuse à l’EHESS et fondatrice de la Labschool France et Jérome Saltet, fondateur de Playback et auteur, qui se questionneront autour bien-être à l’école.

Qu’est-ce que le bien-être à l’école? Quels en sont les enjeux? Pourquoi cette question prend-elle de l’importance? La question du bien-être à l’école est-elle une question individuelle ou collective ? Quel est son impact sur la réussite des élèves?

Vous découvrirez également la classe d’Emilie Martelet, à travers une mise en place et un questionnement.

Emmeline Porthé, « Le bien-être à l’école », De septembre à juin, consulté le 7 juillet 2023, https://www.labschool.fr/podcast-1.

Mental Health in European Economics Departments

Abstract: We study the mental health of graduate students and faculty at 14 Economics departments in Europe. Using clinically validated surveys sent out in the fall of 2021, we find that 34.7% of graduate students experience moderate to severe symptoms of depression or anxiety and 17.3% report suicidal or self-harm ideation in a two-week period. Only 19.2% of students with significant symptoms are in treatment. 15.8% of faculty members experience moderate to severe depression or anxiety symptoms, with prevalence higher among non-tenure track (42.9%) and tenure track (31.4%) faculty than tenured (9.6%) faculty. We estimate that the COVID-19 pandemic accounts for about 74% of the higher prevalence of depression symptoms and 30% of the higher prevalence of anxiety symptoms in our European sample relative to a 2017 U.S. sample of economics graduate students. We also document issues in the work environment, including a high incidence of sexual harassment, and make recommendations for improvement.

Valentin Bolotnyy et al., « Mental Health in European Economics Departments », IZA Discussion Paper Series 16309, 13 juillet 2023, https://docs.iza.org/dp16309.pdf.

A systematic review of the strength of evidence for the most commonly recommended happiness strategies in mainstream media

Abstract: We conducted a systematic review of the evidence underlying some of the most widely recommended strategies for increasing happiness. By coding media articles on happiness, we first identified the five most commonly recommended strategies: expressing gratitude, enhancing sociability, exercising, practising mindfulness/meditation and increasing nature exposure. Next, we conducted a systematic search of the published scientific literature. We identified well-powered, pre-registered experiments testing the effects of these strategies on any aspect of subjective wellbeing (that is, positive affect, negative affect and life satisfaction) in non-clinical samples. A total of 57 studies were included. Our review suggests that a strong scientific foundation is lacking for some of the most commonly recommended happiness strategies. As the effectiveness of these strategies remains an open question, there is an urgent need for well-powered, pre-registered studies investigating strategies for promoting happiness.

Dunigan Folk et Elizabeth Dunn, « A Systematic Review of the Strength of Evidence for the Most Commonly Recommended Happiness Strategies in Mainstream Media », Nature Human Behaviour, 20 juillet 2023, 1‑11, https://doi.org/10.1038/s41562-023-01651-4.

Reference Groups and Relative Effects on Well-Being

Abstract: Economic growth may not improve society if people compare their achievements to others in relative ways that detract from well-being. But who are these others and what economic dimensions matter? This research applied a p-value ranking approach from genetics research to tackle the issue of reference group selection. Data from over 30,000 British and American adults were analyzed in nearly 800 multi-level models. Over 300 measures of reference group socio-economic status and eight measures of well-being were used. The results showed that reference groups based on geography and age, perceptions of those in “society,” and rank wealth were most consistently associated with well-being. Measures less consistently associated with well-being used averages, medians, and proportions in states and local authorities without demographic sub-groups. Future researchers should consider the consistently associated dimensions of reference groups when constructing relative measures.

Laura Kudrna, « Reference Groups and Relative Effects on Well-Being », Review of Income and Wealth, consulté le 28 juillet 2023, https://doi.org/10.1111/roiw.12656.

Workplace Happiness and Employee Recruitment

Abstract: For over a century, organizational researchers and practitioners alike have been interested in the role played by employee happiness in shaping workplace performance. Whereas prior work has focused on the potential effects of happiness on productivity and retention, in this paper, I study the effects of workplace happiness on a firm’s ability to compete in the labor market and attract workers. I provide evidence from a field experiment on a large online jobs platform in the USA, in which treated job seekers were shown aggregated information about the happiness of incumbent workers at the companies to which they were considering applying. I provide evidence that showing information about happiness has an impact on job search behavior, with treated job seekers increasing their application selectivity and redirecting applications from low- to high-happiness companies. These labor supply effects are driven largely by job seekers « screening out » low happiness firms from their job search, a finding that is replicated in subsequent field experiments on the platform in Canada and the UK. The findings suggest that workplace happiness affects labor supply decisions and, ultimately, that employers face incentives to invest in organizational and management practices that are conducive to worker happiness.

George Ward, « Workplace Happiness and Employee Recruitment », Academy of Management Proceedings 2023, no 1 (août 2023): 11933, https://doi.org/10.5465/AMPROC.2023.132bp.

Happiness And Ageing In The United States 1

Abstract: The years since the Great Recession have brought increasing concern, in countries all over the world, of declines in mental health and well-being. Globally, chronic depression and suicide rates peak in midlife. In the United States, deaths of despair are most likely to occur in these years, and the patterns are robustly associated with unhappiness and stress. A less-known relationship also exists between well-being and longevity among the elderly, particularly for those over age 70. In this chapter, we analyze several data sets for the United States, provide extensive evidence on middle-age patterns and how they differ between the married and unmarried, and review new work on the elderly. The relationship between well-being and ageing has a robust association with trends that can ruin lives and shorten life spans. It applies to much of the world’s population and links to behaviors and outcomes that merit the attention of scholars and policymakers alike.

David G. Blanchflower Graham Carol, « Happiness And Ageing In The United States 1 », in The Routledge Handbook of the Economics of Ageing (Routledge, 2023).

Well-being effects of the digital platform economy. The case of temporary and self- employment

Abstract: The increase in atypical jobs (self-employment and temporary jobs) driven by the digital platform economy (gig economy) has put this type of work in the spotlight of the social and political debate. Among the countries of the European Union, Spain stands out for having the highest volume of digital platform work. This study uses microdata from the Spanish Living Conditions Survey for the year 2018 and Google trends data on Deliveroo, Airbnb, Just Eat, Uber, and Freelance as a proxy of digital platform economy demand to analyse the well-being effects of being employed in any of the types of employment arrangements associated with the gig economy. Using an econometric approached based on instrumental variables, we find evidence that the most deleterious well-being effects are found among self-employed workers and for the dimension of well-being based on self-reported health. The self-employed (ownaccount workers) display a 125.8% decrease in average self-reported health levels compared to permanent workers. Our results suggest that the greater job insecurity and precariousness associated with self-employment outweighs the potential positive impact caused by the greater flexibility and autonomy of this type of work.

Maite Blázquez, Ainhoa Herrarte, et Ana I. Moro Egido, « Well-being effects of the digital platform economy. The case of temporary and self-employment », ThE Paper (Department of Economic Theory and Economic History of the University of Granada., 15 juin 2023), https://econpapers.repec.org/paper/grawpaper/23_2f05.htm.

The vulnerability aspect of happiness: The European middle class perspective

Abstract: This paper evaluates the importance of middle class vulnerability to poverty for subjective well-being (happiness) in European countries. Using the special module of the European Union Statistics on Income and Living Conditions micro-data on well-being and national aggregates from the World Happiness Report, the vulnerability indicator used is shown to be statistically significant for happiness perceptions at both the individual and aggregate levels. At the micro level, the economic importance of income vulnerability for the middle class is on a par with (or even greater than) economic factors such as severe material deprivation, difficulty of finding a job, or the acute financial burden of housing or debt repayments. We find that the lower income bound of the middle class (75% of the national median income) and not the poverty line (60% of the median) is more relevant for individual hapiness of middle class members. The aggregate income vulnerability of the middle class is also one of the most significant factors affecting national happiness, along with gross domestic product per capita and perceptions of corruption. The results indicate that anxiety related to the (severe) downside risk of income has large costs in terms of happiness. They therefore support the development of policies to reduce income uncertainty.

Peter Benczur et Virmantas Kvedaras, « The vulnerability aspect of happiness: The European middle class perspective », Working Paper (Joint Research Centre, European Commission, mai 2023), https://econpapers.repec.org/paper/jrswpaper/202305.htm.

Doing things when others do: Temporal synchrony and subjective wellbeing

Abstract: Proposing a measure of synchrony, the level of accordance between individual and collective schedules, we examined the effects of synchrony on the two indicators of subjective wellbeing, daily mood, and life satisfaction. We argue that temporal norms underlying collective schedules are a part of social norms, the deviation from which influences an individual’s wellbeing via external and internal sanctions. Analyses of time-use data showed that synchrony was effective in improving evaluative wellbeing (life satisfaction) but not affective wellbeing (daily mood). More specifically, synchrony did not predict well who was satisfied with life but did fairly well predict who was not, which implies that compliance with temporal norms is a necessary but not sufficient condition of life satisfaction.

Sangmoon Kim, « Doing Things When Others Do: Temporal Synchrony and Subjective Wellbeing », Time & Society, 4 juillet 2023, 0961463X231184099, https://doi.org/10.1177/0961463X231184099.

Happiness, Space and Place: Community Area Clustering and Spillovers of Life Satisfaction in Canada

Abstract: There has been a rapidly growing number of studies of the geographical aspects of happiness and well-being. Many of these studies have been highlighting the role of space and place and of individual and spatial contextual determinants of happiness. However, most of the studies to date do not explicitly consider spatial clustering and possible spatial spillover effects of happiness and well-being. The few studies that do consider spatial clustering and spillovers conduct the analysis at a relatively coarse geographical scale of country or region. This article analyses such effects at a much smaller geographical unit: community areas. These are small area level geographies at the intra-urban level. In particular, the article presents a spatial econometric approach to the analysis of life satisfaction data aggregated to 1,215 communities in Canada and examines spatial clustering and spatial spillovers. Communities are suitable given that they form a small geographical reference point for households. We find that communities’ life satisfaction is spatially clustered while regression results show that it is associated to the life satisfaction of neighbouring communities as well as to the latter’s average household income and unemployment rate. We consider the role of shared cultural traits and institutions that may explain such spillovers of life satisfaction. The findings highlight the importance of neighbouring characteristics when discussing policies to improve the well-being of a (small area) place.

Thanasis Ziogas et al., « Happiness, Space and Place: Community Area Clustering and Spillovers of Life Satisfaction in Canada », Applied Research in Quality of Life, 20 juillet 2023, https://doi.org/10.1007/s11482-023-10203-x.

The relationships between income, life satisfaction and emotional well-being in European countries differing in wealth

Abstract: The aim of this study is to investigate whether income has different relationships to subjective well-being in richer countries compared to poorer ones. We report analyses based on interview data collected in the European Social Survey (n = 72,574) that examine how income relates to life satisfaction (LS) and emotional well-being (EWB) in 28 European countries, varying in gross domestic product (GDP) per capita. Our results indicate that the within-country correlations of income with LS and EWB decrease as GDP per capita increases. Partial correlations controlling for EWB are positive but do not vary with GDP per capita, whereas partial correlations controlling for LS vary inversely with GDP per capita. We hypothesise that the invariant income-LS relationships result from effects of relative income on social comparisons, while the varying income-EWB relationships result from the negative impacts of time scarcity in richer countries and the buffering of negative experiences in poorer ones.

Filip Fors Connolly et Tommy Gärling, « The Relationships between Income, Life Satisfaction and Emotional Well-Being in European Countries Differing in Wealth », International Journal of Psychology (12 août 2023), https://doi.org/10.1002/ijop.12935.