'Key to Happiness is Work, Not Necessarily Growth'

Well here's another report that should put growth fetishists on the defensive. Before you start talking about endogeneity biases and how employment is related to economic growth, do note that the assertion above ain't mine. Rather, it's that of the International Institute of Labor Studies in Geneva--a research body of the International Labor Organization which, of course, is under the United Nations. International organizations, what'd we do without them?

Anyway, the notable assertion the IILS makes in the 2010 edition of the World of Work report is that life satisfaction is driven primarily by employment outcomes and not economic growth. This being a UN publication, you will not be surprised to note that the policy recommendation is thus to reduce unemployment and to reduce income inequalities stemming from unemployment. The summary concerning this finding is reproduced below, though the section of the report is well worth reading for those with an interest in labor or well-being:

Social cohesion should figure more prominently in the policy debate. The initial policy response contributed to building a sense that employment and social concerns were taken into account. However, continued social cohesion cannot be taken for granted if the strategy became less inclusive.

Already, there is growing evidence of a deteriorated social climate, especially in countries where job losses have been the highest. For example, out of 82 countries with available information, more than three-quarters indicate that in 2009, individual perceptions of their quality of life and standard of living have declined. The unemployment rate in these countries has risen by nearly 3 percentage points more than in the other countries. Even among those with a job, satisfaction at work has deteriorated significantly – in more than two-thirds of 71 countries with data, job satisfaction fell in 2009. Not surprisingly, perceptions of unfairness are growing (46 out of 83 countries) and people have less confidence in governments (36 out of 72 countries) than prior to the crisis. The Report shows that higher unemployment and growing income inequalities are key determinants of the deterioration in social climate indicators. By contrast, economic growth per se is not a very significant factor behind social climate indicators. This result reinforces the importance of job-centered policy action advocated by the ILO Global Jobs Pact.

In sum, adopting a job-centered exit strategy would enhance social cohesion while ensuring sustainable recovery from the crisis. This requires carefully-crafted fiscal support to tackle long-term unemployment, efforts to strengthen the links between labour incomes and productivity developments and financial reforms geared towards the needs of the real economy. As stressed by many observers, the crisis should be used as an opportunity to building a balanced global economy. The employment and social outlook suggests that time is running out to make this opportunity a reality.

Download the LSE's New Happiness iPhone App :-)

One of the main innovations to emerge from the marginal revolution was the idea of utilitarianism. That is, economic definitions of value began to acquire more hedonic overtones: what does x or y mean to me? To this end, utilitarians naturally went down the road of measuring "utility." What makes one happy? Back in the day, British economist (and obviously a utilitarian) William Edgeworth imagined a device that would measure such things; a "hedonimeter" as it were:

To precise the ideas, let there be granted to the science of pleasure what is granted to the science of energy; to imagine an ideally perfect instrument, a psychophysical machine, continually registering the height of pleasure experienced by an individual, exactly according to the verdict of consciousness, or rather diverging therefrom according to a law of errors. From moment to moment the hedonimeter varies; the delicate index now flickering with the flutter of the passions, now steadied by intellectual activity, low sunk whole hours in the neighbourhood of zero, or momentarily springing up towards infinity. The continually indicated height is registered by photographic or other frictionless apparatus upon a uniformly moving vertical plane. Then the quantity of happiness between two epochs is represented by the area contained between the zero-line, perpendiculars thereto at the points corresponding to the epochs, and the curve traced by the index; or, if the correction suggested in the last paragraph be admitted, another dimension will be required for the representation. The integration must be extended from the present to the infinitely future time to constitute the end of pure egoism.

And so I experienced a momentary spike in happiness when I serendipitously came across this new thingamajig: while logging on to my LSE e-mail account, I accidentally found myself browsing the LSE front page instead. And there it was: a new iPhone app to measure happiness as suggested by Edgeworth incorporating advancements such as GPS, albeit with not quite yet the same level of precision he imagined. As a brief background, (modern) utilitarian Richard Layard--who wrote a generally well-received book a few years back on Happiness: Lessons From a New Science--heads a centre for well-being here at the LSE. This book expanded on ideas he first put forward in a series of lectures dating from 2003.

Anyway, George MacKerron and his (our?) colleagues at the Geography department took inspiration from both Edgeworth and Layard, culminating in their "Mappiness" project that aims to spatially and chronologically map happiness. (Alas, international readers, only data from UK-based iPhone users will be used for now.) Here is the LSE blurb:

Mappiness, an iPhone app mapping happiness across the UK, is officially launched today at the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE). The project will help researchers understand how people's feelings are affected by their immediate environment -- including features such as pollution, noise, weather conditions and green space.

The app, which is the first of its kind, pings users daily to ask how they're feeling, and uses satellite positioning (GPS) to discover their location while they answer. Response locations are linked to environmental data, which will be fed into statistical models of wellbeing.

Lead researcher George MacKerron, of LSE's Department of Geography and Environment, said: 'Tracking happiness through time alone is an idea with history: in the 19th century economists imagined a 'hedonimeter', a perfect happiness gauge, and psychologists have more recently run small-scale 'experience sampling' studies to see how mood varies with activity, time of day, and so on.

'What's exciting here is the addition of the spatial dimension. By tracking across space as well as time, and by making novel use of a technology that millions of people already carry with them, we hope to find better answers to questions about the impacts of natural beauty, environmental problems -- maybe even aspects of climate -- on individual and national wellbeing.'

Professor Lord Richard Layard, director of the Well-being Programme at LSE's Centre for Economic Performance, said: 'Mappiness is a revolutionary research idea. It is the best method so far devised for understanding how people's emotions are affected by the buildings and natural environment in which they move.'

National happiness levels are updated in real-time on the project website, www.mappiness.org.uk, alongside maps and timelines derived from the response data. App users also get access to personalised charts analysing their own mood in return for taking part. Mappiness is a free download on Apple's online App Store. The researchers aim to get at least 3,000 people joining in the project. All iPhone owners are invited to take part.

As an admittedly grumpy sort--that's why I have a blog, dammit--I take issue with the overwhelmingly happy sample of folks from early returns. Already, I'm thinking that there's an inherent sample selection bias in that iPhone buyers tend to buy into Apple's lifestyle shtick too much--"Oh, how happy and complete a person I've become since I bought my iWhatever..."

Anyway, for those curious, it's certainly worth supporting our colleagues' imaginative project by downloading the free app if you've got an iPhone (or iPod Touch for that matter). Even if I'm neither a utilitarian nor an iSycophant, I do support worthwhile projects.