Abstract
In this chapter, we explore the effect of individual and of interpersonal variables on the individual and social domains of subjective well-being. Using data derived from the Latinobarómetro 2007, we analyze if some of the variables affect differently individual or social dimensions. We estimate generalized probit models to allow the effects to be different also across the distribution of subjective well-being in each dimension. We further explore if there are some domains for which there is some possible degree of substitution between personal characteristics (resources) and interpersonal relationships as to improve well-being. We find that substitution is a possibility for individual dimensions, but not for social or institutional ones.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Similar content being viewed by others
Notes
- 1.
Although we follow Lora’s classification, we are conscious that not all these “abilities” are of the same nature. For instance, education belongs to the category of abilities that can change over time and are susceptible of some public intervention, whereas personal characteristics as age, gender or ethnicity are of a different nature . However, since in our analysis we have cross-section data and this fact will determine the methods for the analysis, we can consider all of them abilities in a rough sense.
- 2.
The interest of conducting subjective well-being research using panel data in order to better address unobserved heterogeneity and causality problems is to be further explained in the presentation of the estimation method. For a general discussion, see Van Praag and Ferrer-i-Carbonell 2004.
- 3.
Eighteen years for all the countries considered, with the exceptions of Brazil and Nicaragua, where the legal age for adulthood is 16.
- 4.
If we consider the index, the minimum level of observations is 9415 for the micro dimensions.
- 5.
Principal components analysis is a statistical procedure using a set of variables to extract the few orthogonal linear combinations of the variables that capture the common information in the most satisfactory way. Consistently, the first principal component of a set of variables is the linear index of all the variables that capture the largest amount of information common to all the variables. Thus, our dependent variables that use information coming from different domains are additive and linear (Van Praag and Ferrer-i-Carbonell 2004; Rojas 2006).
- 6.
In all cases of satisfaction variables, the scale is reversed.
- 7.
Principal components analysis is a statistical procedure using a set of variables to extract the few orthogonal linear combinations of the variables that capture the common information in the most satisfactory way. Consistently, the first principal component of a set of variables is the linear index of all the variables that capture the largest amount of information common to all the variables. Thus, our dependent variables that use information coming from different domains are additive and linear (Van Praag and Ferrer-i-Carbonell 2004; Rojas 2006).
- 8.
We differentiate between illiterate and incomplete primary education levels because being able to read and write can make a difference in low income countries in terms of capabilities.
- 9.
The individuals classified themselves as a person of mixed race, particularly of indigenous and white parentage.
- 10.
This category includes individuals of mixed black and white parentage.
- 11.
As mentioned before, principal components analysis is a statistical procedure using a set of variables to extract the few orthogonal linear combinations of the variables that capture the common information in the most satisfactory way. Consistently, the first principal component of a set of variables is the linear index of all the variables that capture the largest amount of information common to all the variables.
- 12.
The LAPOP index includes information about the ownership of a landline and microwave, and excludes owning a home and owning a second home.
- 13.
The internal and external validity of this type of index and its robustness to the inclusion of different assets can be found in a paper by Filmer and Prichett (2001). Wealth indexes (showing high correlation with household consumption expenditure) are used to explain the relationship between households’ material conditions and children’s school enrollment in India.
- 14.
- 15.
For a complete revision of assumptions and goodness of fit test, see Mora and Moro-Egido (2008).
- 16.
An especially useful concept and magnitude for policy evaluation (van-Praag and Ferrer-i-Carbonell 2004).
- 17.
Recall that this measure is an overall measure of evaluation of life, and it could be considered as a measure of higher hierarchy than the rest, and therefore the alternative to the micro-satisfaction index.
- 18.
For the sake of simplicity to the reader, we have not included the estimation results concerning these variables, but they are available upon request from authors.
- 19.
This corresponds to the second interpretation of the MPE that GOP allows to make.
Bibliography
Acemoglu, D., & Robinson, J. (2012). Why nations fail? The origins of power, prosperity and poverty. New York: Crown Publishers.
Adler, D. (2012). Happiness surveys and public policy: What’s the use? (Public Law and Legal Theory, Research Paper No. 12–36). Pennsylvania: University of Pennsylvania Law School.
Alesina, A., Di Tella, R., & MacCulloch, R. (2004). Inequality and happiness: Are Europeans and Americans different? Journal of Public Economics, 88(9–10), 2009–2042.
Alpizar, F., Carlsson, F., & Johansson, O. (2005). How much do we care about absolute versus relative income and consumption? Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, 56(3), 405–421.
Argyle, M. (1999). Causes and correlates of happiness. In D. Kanheman, E. Diener, & N. Schwarz (Eds.), Well-being: The foundations of hedonic psychology (pp. 353–373). New York: Russell Sage Foundation.
Ateca-Amestoy, V., Cortés-Aguilar, A., & Moro-Egido, A.I. (2014). Social interactions and life-satisfaction: Evidence from Latin America. Journal of Happiness Studies, 15(3), 527–554.
Bartolini, S., Bilancini, E., & Pugno, M. (2008). Did the decline in social capital decrease American happiness? A relational explanation of the happiness paradox (University of Siena Dept of Economics Working Paper 513).
Bechetti, L., Pelloni, A., & Rossetti, F. (2008). Relational goods, sociability, and happiness. Kyklos, 61(3), 343–363.
Beugelsdijk, S., & Smulders, S. (2003). Bridging and bonding social capital: Which type is good for economic growth? In W. Arts, J. Hagenaars, & L. Halman (Eds.), The cultural diversity of European unity (pp. 275–310). Leiden: Brill.
Blanchflower, G. (2007, October). Is unemployment more costly than inflation? (NBER Working Paper W13505).
Blanchflower, D., & Freeman, R. (1997). The attitudinal legacy of communist labor relations. Industrial and Labor Relations Review, 50(3), 438–459.
Blanchflower, D., & Oswald, A. (2004). Well-being over time in Britain and the USA. Journal of Public Economics, 87(7–8), 1359–1386.
Blanchflower, D., & Oswald, A. (2008). Is well-being u-shaped over the life cycle? Social Science & Medicine, 2008, 1733–1749.
Blanchflower, D., Oswald, A., & Stutzer, A. (2001). Latent entrepreneurship across nations. European Economic Review, 45(4–6), 680–691.
Blanchflower, D. G., Bell, D. N., Montagnoli, A., & Moro, M. (2013). The effects of macroeconomic shocks on well-being (Working paper, Darmouth College).
Boes, S., & Winkelmann, R. (2006a). Ordered response models. Allgemeines Statistisches Archiv, 90, 165–179.
Boes, S. & Winkelmann, R. (2006b) The effect of income on positive and negative subjective well-being. University of Zurich, Socioeconomic Institute, Manuscript, IZA Discussion Paper Number 1175.
Boes, S., & Winkelmann, R. (2010). The effect of income on general life satisfaction and dissatisfaction. Social Indicators Research, 95, 111–128.
Bookwalter, J., & Dalenberg, D. (2010). Relative to what or whom? The importance of norms and relative standing to well-being in South Africa. World Development, 38(3), 345–355.
Bruni, L., & Stanca, L. (2008). Watching alone: Relational goods, television and happiness. Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization, 65(3), 506–528.
Caporale, G., Georgellis, Y., Tsitsianis, N., & Ping Yin, Y. (2009). Income and happiness across Europe: Do reference values matter? Journal of Economic Psychology, 30(1), 42–51.
Clark, A. (2003). Unemployment as a social norm: Psychological evidence from Panel Data”. Journal of Labor Economics, 21, 323–351.
Clark, A., & Senik, C. (2010). Who compares to whom: The anatomy of income comparisons in Europe. The Economic Journal, 120(544), 573–594.
Clark, A., Fabrice, E., Postel-Vinay, F., Senik, C., & van der Straeten, K. (2005). Heterogeneity in reported well-being: Evidence from twelve European countries. The Economic Journal, 115(502), C118–C132.
Córdova, A. (2009). Methodological note: Measuring relative wealth using household asset indicators. Latin American public opinion project. Americas Barometer Insights, 6, 1–9.
Cortés-Aguilar, A. & Moro-Egido, A.I. (2011). Relative concerns and subjective well-being: Testing relative income hypotheses. University of Granada. Mimeo.
CortÕs-Aguilar, A., GarcÚa-Muñoz, T., & Moro-Egido, A. I. (2013). Heterogeneous self-employment and subjective well-being: Evidence from Latin America. Journal of Economic Psychology, 39, 44–61.
Di Tella, R., MacCulloch, J., & Oswald, J. (2001). Preferences over inflation and unemployment: Evidence from surveys of happiness. American Economic Review, 91, 335–341.
Dolan, P., Peasgood, T., & White, M. (2008). Do we really know what makes us happy? A review of the economic literature on the factors associated with subjective well-being. Journal of Economic Psychology, 29, 94–122.
Durlauf, N., & Fafchamps, M. (2004). Social capital (NBER Working Paper Series, Working Paper 10485).
Easterlin, A., & Sawangfa, O. (2009). Happiness and domain satisfaction: Theory and evidence. In A. K. Dutt & B. Radcliff (Eds.), Happiness, economics, and politics: Towards a multi-disciplinary approach. Northampton: Edward Elgar.
Elgar, F., Davis, G., Wohl, J., Trites, J., Zelenski, M., & Martin, S. (2011). Social capital, health and life satisfaction in 50 countries. Health and Place, 17, 1044–1053.
Ferrer-i-Carbonell, A. (2005). Income and well-being: An empirical analysis of the comparison income effect. Journal of Public Economics, 85(5–6), 997–1019.
Ferrer-i-Carbonell, A., & Frijters, P. (2004). How important is methodology for the estimates of the determinants of happiness? The Economic Journal, 114(497), 641–659.
Filmer, D., & Pritchett, L. (2001). Estimating wealth effects without expenditure data-or tears: An application to educational enrollments in states of India”. Demography, 38(1), 115–132.
Frank, R. (1985). Choosing the right pond: Human behavior and the quest for status. New York: Oxford University Press.
Frey, B., & Benz, M. (2003). Being independent is a great thing: Subjective evaluations of self-employment and hierarchy (CESifo Working Paper No. 959).
Frey, S., & Stutzer, A. (2002). What can economists learn from happiness research? Journal of Economic Literature, 40(2), 402–435.
Graham, C., & Felton, A. (2005). Does inequality matter to individual welfare? An initial exploration based on happiness surveys from Latin America (CSED Working Paper No. 38). Washington, DC: The Brookings Institution.
Graham, C., & Felton, A. (2006). Inequality and happiness: Insights from Latin America. Journal of Economic Inequality, 4(1), 107–122.
Graham, C., & Pettinato, S. (2001). Happiness, markets, and democracy: Latin America in comparative perspective. Journal of Happiness Studies, 2(3), 237–268.
Guven, C., & Sørensen, E. (2012). Subjective well-being: Keeping up with the perception of the Joneses. Social Indicator Research, 109, 439–469.
Han, S., Kim, H., & Lee, S. (2012). The contextual and compositional associations of social capital and subjective happiness: A multilevel analysis from Seoul, South Korea. Journal of Happiness Studies. doi:10.1007/s10902-012-9375-x.
Helliwell, J. (2003). How’s life? Combining individual and national variables to explain subjective well-being. Economic Modelling, 20(2), 331–360.
Helliwell, F., Barrington-Leigh, P., Harris, A., & Huang, H. (2009). International evidence on the social context of well-being (NBER Working Paper No. 14720).
Inglehart, R. (1999). Trust, well-being, and democracy. In M. Warren (Ed.), Democracy and trust. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
International Labour Organization – ILO. (1993). Resolution concerning the international classification of status in employment (ICSE), Adopted by the Fifteenth International Conference of Labour Statisticians.
Kapteyn, A., Smith, P., & van Soest, A. (2010). Life satisfaction. In E. Diener, J. E. Helliwell, & D. Kahneman (Eds.), International differences in well being (p. 70). USA: Oxford University Press.
Kingdon, G., & Knight, J. (2006). Subjective well-being poverty vs income poverty and capabilities poverty? The Journal of Development Studies, 42(7), 1199–1224.
Latinobarómetro Corporation. (2007a). Codebook 2007.
Latinobarómetro Corporation. (2007b). Latinobarómetro 2007 Data File.
Latinobarómetro Corporation. (2009). Methodological Report Latinobarómetro 2007.
Leung, A., Kier, C., Fung, T., Fung, L., & Sproule, R. (2011). Searching for happiness: The importance of social capital. Journal of Happiness Studies, 12, 443–462.
López-Ulloa, B. F., Møller, V., & Sousa-Poza, A. (2013). How does subjective well-being evolve with age? A Literature Review. Journal of Population Ageing, 6, 227–246.
Lora, E. (2008). Beyond facts: Understanding quality of life (Development in the Americas Report). Washington, DC: Inter-American Development Bank.
Luttmer, E. (2005). Neighbors as negatives: Relative earnings and well-being. The Quarterly Journal of Economics, 120(3), 963–1002.
MacKerron, G. (2012). Happiness economics from 35000 feet. Journal of Economic Surveys, 26(4), 705–735.
Marshall, M., & Stolle, D. (2004). Race and the city: Neighborhood context and the development of generalized trust. Political Behavior, 26(2), 125–153.
McAdams, K., Lucas, E., & Donnellan, B. (2012). The role of domain satisfaction in explaining the paradoxical association between life satisfaction and age. Social Indicators Research, 2012, 295–303.
McBride, M. (2001). Relative-income effects on subjective well-being in the cross-section. Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization, 45(3), 251–278.
Meier, S., & Stutzer, A. (2008). Is volunteering rewarding in itself? Economica, 75(297), 39–59.
Mentzakis, E., & Moro, M. (2009). The poor, the rich and the happy: Exploring the link between income and subjective well-being. Journal of Socio-Economics, 38(1), 147–158.
Mora, J., & Moro, I. (2008). On specification testing ordered discrete choice models. Journal of Econometrics, 143(1), 191–205.
Muffles, R., & Heady, B. (2013). Capabilities and choices: Do they make sense for understanding objective and subjective well-being? An empirical test of Sen’s capability framework on German and British panel data. Social Indicator Research, 110, 1159–1185.
Narayan, D. (1999). Bonds and bridges: Social capital and poverty (Policy Research Working Paper 2167). World Bank, Poverty Reduction and Economic Management Network, Washington, DC.
Oswald, A. (1997). Happiness and economic performance. The Economic Journal, 107(445), 1815–1831.
Pereira, C., & Coelho, F. (2012). Untangling the relationship between income and subjective well-being: The role of perceived income adequacy and borrowing constraints. Journal of Happiness Studies. doi:10.1007/s10902-012-9365-z.
Posel, R., & Casale, M. (2011). Relative standing and subjective well-being in South Africa: The role of perceptions, expectations and income mobility. Social Indicator Research, 104, 195–223.
Powdthavee, N. (2009). How important is rank to individual perception of economic standing? A within-community analysis. Journal of Economic Inequality, 7(3), 225–248.
Rojas, M. (2006). Life satisfaction and satisfaction in domains of life: Is it a simple relationship? Journal of Happiness Studies, 7(4), 467–497.
Rojas, M. (2007). The complexity of well-being: A life satisfaction conception and a domains-of-life approach. In I. Grough & A. McGregor (Eds.), Well-being in developing countries: From theory to research (pp. 259–280). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Rözer, J., & Kraaykamp, G. (2013). Income inequality and subjective well-being: A cross-national study on the conditional effects of individual and national characteristics. Social Indicator Research, 113(3), 1009–1023.
Sabatini, F. (2008). Social capital and the quality of economic development. Kyklos, 61(3), 466–499.
Sabatini, F. (2009). Social capital as social networks: A new framework for measurement and an empirical analysis of its determinants and consequences. The Journal of Socio-Economics, 38, 429–442.
Sarracino, F. (2010). Social capital and subjective well-being trends: Comparing 11 Western European countries. The Journal of Socio-Economics, 39, 482–517.
Senik, C. (2004). When information dominates comparison: Learning from Russian subjective panel data. Journal of Public Economics, 88(9–10), 2099–2133.
Senik, C. (2005). Income distribution and well-being: What can we learn from subjective data? Journal of Economic Surveys, 19(1), 43–63.
Senik, C. (2008). Ambition and jealousy: Income interactions in the “Old Europe” versus the “New Europe” and the United States. Economica, 75(299), 495–513.
Senik, C. (2009). Direct evidence on income comparisons in their welfare effects. Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization, 72(1), 408–424.
Stutzer, A. (2004). The role of income aspirations in individual happiness. Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization, 54(1), 89–109.
Stutzer, A., & Frey, B. (2010). Recent advances in the economics of individual subjective well-being. Social Research, 77(2), 679–714.
Stutzer, A., & Frey, B. (2012). Recent developments in the economics of happiness: A selective overview (IZA DP No. 7078). Bonn: Institute for the Study of Labor.
Tao, H., & Chiu, S. (2009). The effects of relative income and absolute income on happiness. Review of Development Economics, 13(1), 164–174.
Tokuda, Y., Fujii, S., & Inoguchi, T. (2010). Individual and country-level effects of social trust on happiness: The Asia barometer survey. Journal of Applied Social Psychology, 40, 2574–2593.
van Praag, B., & Ferrer-i-Carbonell, A. (2004). Happiness quantified: A satisfaction calculus approach. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
van Praag, B., & Ferrer-i-Carbonell, A. (2010). Happiness economics: A new road to measuring and comparing happiness. Foundation and Trends in Microeconomics, 6(1), 1–97.
van Praag, B., Frijters, P., & Ferrer-i-Carbonell, A. (2003). The anatomy of subjective well-being. Journal of Economic Behaviour and Organization, 51, 29–49.
Vera-Toscano, E., Ateca, V., & Serrano, R. (2006). Building financial satisfaction. Social Indicators Research, 77(2), 211–243.
Winkelmann, R. (2009). Unemployment, social capital, and subjective well-being. Journal of Happiness Studies, 10(4), 421–430.
Wolpert, D. (2010). Why income comparison is rational. Games and Economic Behavior, 69(2), 458–474.
Woolcock, M., & Narayan, D. (2000). Social capital: Implications for development theory, research, and policy. World Bank Research Observer, 15(2), 225–249.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2016 Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Ateca Amestoy, V., García-Muñoz, T., Moro Egido, A.I. (2016). Individual and Social Dimensions of Subjective Well-Being: Evidence Across Latin-American Countries. In: Rojas, M. (eds) Handbook of Happiness Research in Latin America. International Handbooks of Quality-of-Life. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-017-7203-7_21
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-017-7203-7_21
Publisher Name: Springer, Dordrecht
Print ISBN: 978-94-017-7202-0
Online ISBN: 978-94-017-7203-7
eBook Packages: Social SciencesSocial Sciences (R0)