scholarly journals Buffer Stock Operations and Well-Being: The Case of Smallholder Farmers in Ghana

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Emmanuel Abokyi ◽  
Dirk Strijker ◽  
Kofi Fred Asiedu ◽  
Michiel N. Daams
Keyword(s):  
Stock Price ◽  
Smallholder Farmers ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Buffer Stock ◽  
Least Square ◽  
Subjective Well Being ◽  
Stabilization Policy ◽  
Environmental Aspects ◽  
Policy Makers ◽  
Aid Policy

AbstractThis study investigates the possible causal relationship between buffer stock operations in Ghanaian agriculture and the well-being of smallholder farmers in a developing world setting. We analyze the differences in the objective and subjective well-being of smallholder farmers who do or do not participate in a buffer stock price stabilization policy initiative, using self-reported assessments of 507 farmers. We adopt a two-stage least square instrumental variable estimation to account for possible endogeneity. Our results provide evidence that participation in buffer stock operations improves the objective and subjective well-being of smallholder farmers by 20% and 15%, respectively. Also, with estimated coefficient of 1.033, we find a significant and robust relationship between objective well-being and subjective well-being among smallholder farmers. This relationship implies that improving objective well-being enhances the subjective well-being of the farmers. We also find that the activities of intermediaries decrease both the objective and subjective well-being of farmers. This study demonstrates that economic, social, and environmental aspects of agricultural life could constitute priorities for public policy in improving well-being, given their strong correlation with the well-being of farmers. Based on the results of this study, we provide a better understanding, which may aid policy-makers, that public buffer stockholding operations policy is a viable tool for improving the well-being of smallholder farmers in a developing country.

scholarly journals Subjective well-being: Mental health study among student in the Islamic boarding school

2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
pp. 146
Author(s):  
Lharasati Dewi ◽  
Fatwa Tentama ◽  
Ahmad Muhammad Diponegoro
Keyword(s):  
Social Support ◽  
Structural Equation ◽  
Boarding School ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Partial Least Square ◽  
Least Square ◽  
Health Study ◽  
Subjective Well Being ◽  
Family Social Support ◽  
Self Acceptance

The purpose of this study was to analyze the model of the influence of family social support, gratitude, and self-acceptance on subjective well-being in student in Islamic boarding schools. The population in this study was all student of class VII in boarding school X and boarding school Y in Yogyakarta, with a total of 430 students. The sample in this study was 150 students. The sampling technique used for this study was cluster random sampling. The data were collected by using several instruments in the form of scales. The scales consisted of family social support scale, gratitude scale, self-acceptance scale, and subjective well-being scale. Data analysis was performed by testing the outer model and the inner model. The data were analyzed using structural equation model (SEM) through the Smart Partial Least Square 3.2.8 program. The results of this study suggested that the formation of a model of the influence of family social support, gratitude, and self-acceptance on subjective well-being fits with empirical data obtained. In other words, there was a significant positive correlation between all variables being studied and subjective well-being. The theoretical model formed in this study was considered fit, so it can be used as a valid model reference in investigating adolescents' subjective well-being.

scholarly journals Do Cigarette Taxes Make Smokers Happier

2005 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Jonathan H Gruber ◽  
Sendhil Mullainathan
Keyword(s):  
State Level ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Subjective Well Being ◽  
Differential Impact ◽  
Policy Makers ◽  
Cigarette Taxes ◽  
Excise Taxes ◽  
Independent Information ◽  
Cigarette Taxation ◽  
Tax Changes

AbstractSome policy makers justify cigarette taxes by arguing that they actually make smokers better off. This argument has been hard to evaluate because behavioral data, such as that showing reduced cigarette consumption following a tax hike, cannot resolve the issue of whether smokers are made better off by the reduction or not. In this paper, we directly assess the effect of cigarette taxes on well-being, using subjective well-being data. We model the differential impact of excise taxes on those with a propensity to smoke, relative to others, in order to control for omitted correlations between happiness and excise taxation. Using US data on happiness and state-level changes in excise taxes, we find consistent evidence that excise taxes make those who have a propensity to smoke happier. To assess robustness, we repeat the exercise using Canadian data, which has independent information on well-being and also much larger tax changes, and find the exact same pattern. Moreover, these impacts are present for cigarette excise taxes, but not for other excise taxes. These results suggest that the welfare effects of cigarette taxation are far more complex than simple rational economic models might predict.

scholarly journals Explore Associations between Subjective Well-Being and Eco-Logical Footprints with Fixed Effects Panel Regressions

Land ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (9) ◽  
pp. 931
Author(s):  
Xiu Wu ◽  
Jinting Zhang ◽  
Daojun Zhang
Keyword(s):  
Environmental Impacts ◽  
Fixed Effects ◽  
Political Stability ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Least Square ◽  
Subjective Well Being ◽  
Subjective Quality Of Life ◽  
Related Factors ◽  
Panel Regressions ◽  
Quality Life

As environmental degradations constantly and directly threaten human well-being, it is imperative to explore the environmental impacts on people’s happy life. This research investigates the association between subjective well-being (SWB) and ecological footprints (EF) through space-time fixed effects panel regressions. EF, as a vital indicator of environmentally sustainable development, plays a vital role in ecological balance. SWB determines the subjective quality of life for humanity. EF-related factors and socio-economic indexes referring to GDP, urbanization rate, income, education, health, political stability, and political voice accountability in 101 countries were captured. Compared with ordinary least square (OLS), stepwise regression (SR) and fixed effects panel regression models (FEPR) exhibited good fitness regardless of the cross-section or longitudinal models due to R2 beyond 0.9. The finding also discloses that EF and health were positively significant to SWB, while income was negatively significant to SWB. EF was an invert u-shaped link to SWB, which met the assumption of EKC. This research provided a model-driven quantitative method to address environmental impacts on people’s quality life of happiness, and opened shared doors for further research of carbon balance and circular economy.

scholarly journals Estimating geographic subjective well-being from Twitter: A comparison of dictionary and data-driven language methods

2020 ◽  
Vol 117 (19) ◽  
pp. 10165-10171 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kokil Jaidka ◽  
Salvatore Giorgi ◽  
H. Andrew Schwartz ◽  
Margaret L. Kern ◽  
Lyle H. Ungar ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Data Driven ◽  
Systematic Evaluation ◽  
County Level ◽  
Subjective Well Being ◽  
Policy Makers ◽  
Regional Effects ◽  
Word Level

Researchers and policy makers worldwide are interested in measuring the subjective well-being of populations. When users post on social media, they leave behind digital traces that reflect their thoughts and feelings. Aggregation of such digital traces may make it possible to monitor well-being at large scale. However, social media-based methods need to be robust to regional effects if they are to produce reliable estimates. Using a sample of 1.53 billion geotagged English tweets, we provide a systematic evaluation of word-level and data-driven methods for text analysis for generating well-being estimates for 1,208 US counties. We compared Twitter-based county-level estimates with well-being measurements provided by the Gallup-Sharecare Well-Being Index survey through 1.73 million phone surveys. We find that word-level methods (e.g., Linguistic Inquiry and Word Count [LIWC] 2015 and Language Assessment by Mechanical Turk [LabMT]) yielded inconsistent county-level well-being measurements due to regional, cultural, and socioeconomic differences in language use. However, removing as few as three of the most frequent words led to notable improvements in well-being prediction. Data-driven methods provided robust estimates, approximating the Gallup data at up to r = 0.64. We show that the findings generalized to county socioeconomic and health outcomes and were robust when poststratifying the samples to be more representative of the general US population. Regional well-being estimation from social media data seems to be robust when supervised data-driven methods are used.

scholarly journals Constraints to growth in informal sector activities and formalisation: A case study of Ghanaian slums

2018 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Darma Mahadea ◽  
Luther-King Junior Zogli
Keyword(s):  
Informal Sector ◽  
Urban Areas ◽  
Principal Component ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Subjective Well Being ◽  
Formal Sector ◽  
Economic Activities ◽  
Policy Makers ◽  
Credit Access ◽  
Pca Method

Background: Globally, people often migrate from rural to urban areas in search of employment. Lack of adequate employment opportunities in cities forced individuals to engage in slum informal economic activities out of necessity.Aim: The informal sector presently employed about 86% of labour in Ghana, contributing 42% to its gross domestic product (GDP). Various constraints held back the development of slum informal activities. Formalising the informal sector is advocated as a step to generate employment. This article investigated the dynamics of informal sector activities and formalisation among slum operators in Ghana, based on a survey in two major cities there.Setting: This article investigated the constraints that hinder the development of slum activities in Accra and Kumasi, two cities in Ghana, and examined the informal operators’ subjective well-being and their willingness to graduate to the formal sector, should the constraints be addressed.Methods: Data were collected by means of a questionnaire, administered to a random sample of 342 informal slum operators. Enterprise constraints are examined by using the principal component analysis (PCA) method and the likelihood of the informal operators’ graduating to the formal sector by using logistic regression.Results: The PCA identified six clusters as limitations, explaining about 77% of the variation in constraints. These related to a lack of business knowledge, credit access, tools and materials, security and social networking. The logistic regression results reflect that, of all the constraints, it is only when access to capital is addressed, that slum operators will move into formal activities.Conclusion: When people are happy in what they are doing, they are reluctant to move to the formal sector, despite incentives or interventions that address their enterprise constraints. Hence, slum operators and informal activities are unlikely to disappear. Nevertheless, policy-makers have to devise appropriate financing strategies for slum operators to help in their formalisation and growth pathways.

Understanding the Pursuit of Happiness in Ten Major Cities

2011 ◽  
Vol 47 (6) ◽  
pp. 861-888 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kevin M. Leyden ◽  
Abraham Goldberg ◽  
Philip Michelbach
Keyword(s):  
Public Transportation ◽  
Urban Areas ◽  
Social Connectedness ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Easy Access ◽  
Social Connections ◽  
Subjective Well Being ◽  
Pursuit Of Happiness ◽  
Policy Makers ◽  
The City

The pursuit of happiness has a long history as a primary political end in Western political thought. Along with traditional economic indicators, policy makers are increasingly concerned with the subjective well-being of a society as a measure for its success. It is important to understand the nature of happiness and ask what can be done to improve it. This article builds upon existing literature that consistently identifies health, wealth, and social connectedness as key predictors of happiness. We find that the design and conditions of cities are associated with the happiness of residents in 10 urban areas. Cities that provide easy access to convenient public transportation and to cultural and leisure amenities promote happiness. Cities that are affordable and serve as good places to raise children also have happier residents. We suggest that such places foster the types of social connections that can improve happiness and ultimately enhance the attractiveness of living in the city.

scholarly journals Internet access and its relationship to subjective well-being in a developing region

2018 ◽  
Vol 21 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Talita Greyling
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
National Level ◽  
Age Groups ◽  
Internet Access ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Least Square ◽  
Subjective Well Being ◽  
The South ◽  
Data Set ◽  
Developing Region

Internet access has been shown to play an important developmental role and Internet access to all people has become an international goal. This is also true for South Africa where the ‘South Africa Connect’ policy was introduced in 2013. The question arises whether Internet access goes beyond meeting developmental goals to improving the subjective well-being of people. Furthermore, if the association between Internet access and subjective well-being vary between different race and age groups. Previous research was performed in developed countries at a national level or for specific small subsamples, like the elderly; however, this study contributes to the literature by analysing a substantial sample, at sub-national level, in a heterogeneous, unequal society, in a developing country. The benefit is that heterogeneities masked in studies at a national, macro level are highlighted in a study at a sub-national, micro level. This article investigated the relationship between subjective well-being and Internet access within a developing region with a heterogeneous, unequal society. The article used a data set representative of the Gauteng population, the economic centre of South Africa, which was collected in 2013 by the Gauteng City Region Observatory. To analyse the data, ordered probit, ordinary least square and instrumental variable regression techniques were used. The results show that Internet access is positively related to subjective well-being and this relationship holds across all race groups and all age groups, from 18 years to over 65 years of age. In addition, it seems that the stark inequalities between race groups present in South Africa are fading among younger generations. Based on the results, the ‘South Africa Connect’ policy, which aims to give Internet access to all people, including those in Gauteng, the region analysed, is supported, as it not only contributes to the development of the region but also to the life satisfaction of the citizens.

scholarly journals Are Trade Liberalization and Democracy Driving Development in Central Africa Region? Empirical Lessons

2013 ◽  
Vol 4 (3) ◽  
pp. 131-140 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tchouassi Tchouassi
Keyword(s):  
Economic Development ◽  
Trade Liberalization ◽  
Regional Integration ◽  
Central Africa ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Least Square ◽  
African Countries ◽  
Policy Makers ◽  
Development Indicators ◽  
Positive Effect

This paper documents that trade liberalization and democracy contribute positively to economic development. A panel of 11 Central Africa countries with 176 observations from 1995 to 2010 was used to econometrically verify this assertion. Estimation using the general least square (GLS) with the overall R-square (R2 = 0.0325) shows that there is a relationship between the economic development captured here with Human development indicators (HDI), democracy, importations, exportations, inflation and regional integration. Inflation and exports negatively affect the well-being of the population. An increase in inflation rate causes a reduction in purchasing power. An increased in exports commodities tends to decrease the quantity of goods available for the country of origin. Imports have a positive effect on HDI probably because this variable tends to increase the quantity of goods available. Imports and democracy have a positive effect on the level of development among Central African countries. The paper’s findings are important to Central Africa policy makers towards creation and increasing trade within, between and with other democratic countries.

scholarly journals Happiness in Communities: How Neighborhoods, Cities and States Use Subjective Well-Being Metrics

2017 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Laura Musikanski ◽  
Carl Polley ◽  
Scott Cloutier ◽  
Erica Berejnoi ◽  
Julia Colbert
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Social Change ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Survey Instrument ◽  
Subjective Well Being ◽  
Local Policy ◽  
Community Based ◽  
Policy Makers ◽  
Community Organizers ◽  
Survey Instruments

This essay, the fourth and last of a series published by the<em> Journal of Social Change</em>, is intended as a tool for community organizers, local policy makers, researchers, students and others to incorporate subjective well-being indicators into their measurements and management of happiness and well-being in their communities, for policy purposes, for research and for other purposes. It provides case studies of community-based efforts in five different regions (São Paulo, Brazil; Bristol, United Kingdom; Melbourne, Australia; Creston, British Columbia, Canada; and Vermont, United States) that either developed their own subjective well-being index or used the Happiness Alliance’s survey instrument to measure happiness and well-being. The essay offers lessons to consider when using subjective well-being indicator survey instruments. Finally, the essay provides a process for measuring happiness using the Happiness Alliance’s survey instrument.

Nudges that should fail?

2019 ◽  
Vol 4 (3) ◽  
pp. 316-342 ◽  
Author(s):  
AVISHALOM TOR
Keyword(s):  
Well Being ◽  
Diagnostic Value ◽  
Welfare Effects ◽  
Policy Implications ◽  
Subjective Well Being ◽  
Policy Makers ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Normative Status ◽  
Paternalistic Approach

AbstractProfessor Sunstein (2017) discusses the possible causes for and policy implications of the failure of nudges, with special attention to defaults. Though he focuses on nudges that fail when they should succeed, Sunstein recognizes that some failures reveal that a nudge should not have been attempted to begin with. ‘Nudges that fail’, however, does not consider fully the relationship between the outcomes of nudging and their likely welfare effects, most notably neglecting the troubling case of nudges that succeed when they should fail. Hence, after clarifying the boundaries of legitimate nudging within a libertarian-paternalistic approach and noting the fourfold relationship between the efficacy of nudging and its normative desirability, this article evaluates more fully the case of failed nudges and examines the hitherto unaddressed problem of successful yet undesirable nudges. This analysis shows that the failure of nudging bears only limited diagnostic value, while the success of a nudge is even less indicative of its normative status. The article concludes with recommendations for policy-makers who wish to employ nudges that are not only efficacious, but also likely to advance the subjective well-being of the individuals they target.

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