Winkelmann
Fakultäten » Wirtschaftswissenschaftliche Fakultät » Volkswirtschaftslehre, Institut für » Prof. Dr. Rainer Winkelmann » Winkelmann
Completed research project
| Title / Titel | A New Assessment Method for Subjective Well-Being | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Abstract (PDF, 14 KB) | |||||
| Summary / Zusammenfassung | This research project aims at introducing a new assessment method for subjective survey data. Research into the determinants of subjective well-being has burgeoned in recent years, and valuable insights have been obtained. Such research is often based on data from household (panel) surveys, such as the LISS, BHPS or GSOEP, that include a single-item 11-point happiness (or life satisfaction) question. Yet there remain some unresolved issues with this measurement. First, from an econometric point of view, should the response be treated as discrete (and ordinal) or as continuous (and cardinal)? If true underlying happiness is continuous, a discrete measurement and modeling will be a) less informative than a continuous scale, and b) afflicted by measurement error. During the last years, happiness and health researchers have examined more carefully the commonly used assessment tool, the discrete Likert scale. Most of the time criticism and innovation have been limited to the range or the ambiguous, implicit and idiosyncratic rescaling of the Likert scale (Lim 2008, Dolan 2008). But researchers have not moved away from a discrete measurment scale. This is despite the fact that conceptionally, utility as well as happiness are usually modelled as continuous, and Praag and Ferrer-i-Carponell (2004) note accordingly that ''satisfaction is measured within our mind on a continuous scale ranging from completely dissatisfied to completely satisfied...''. This project aims at closing the gap between theoretical reasoning and practical measurement. We propose to depart from a discrete measurement and move towards a continuous one. With the LISS panel (Longitudinal Internet Studies for the Social Sciences), a representative survey in the Netherlands, we found a strong partner in the development of this new assessment tool of subjective well-being. |
||||
| Keywords / Suchbegriffe | LISS, visual analogue scale, happiness, subjective well-being, microeconometrics | ||||
| Project leadership and contacts / Projektleitung und Kontakte |
|
||||
| Funding source(s) / Unterstützt durch |
Universität Zürich (position pursuing an academic career), Others |
||||
| In collaboration with / In Zusammenarbeit mit |
|
||||
| Duration of Project / Projektdauer | Jul 2010 to Jul 2012 |