scholarly journals Valuation of Trust in Government: The Wellbeing Valuation Approach

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (19) ◽  
pp. 11000
Author(s):  
Savinee Suriyanrattakorn ◽  
Chia-Lin Chang

Subjective wellbeing maximization is a possible goal of government or public policies, and it is often considered the goal of individual life. This paper proposes an estimation using the Wellbeing Valuation Approach (WVA) to estimate the monetized effect of trust in government. Using a cross-country panel data set for 97 countries in the period from 2011 to 2019, we arrive at three main findings. First, there is a positive relationship between trust in national government and average life satisfaction. Second, trust in the national government has a global median value of Intl$ 5649 per person a year in foregone income. Third, trust affects life satisfaction directly as well as indirectly through per capita GDP. This indirect effect is considered relatively small compared to the direct effect, being approximately six times smaller. This study contributes to the policy evaluation literature by providing an evaluation of trust in government to be used as a proxy to plan future investment or policy assessment.

2017 ◽  
Vol 83 (4) ◽  
pp. 379-420
Author(s):  
Alessio Moro ◽  
Solmaz Moslehi ◽  
Satoshi Tanaka

Abstract:There is an extensive literature discussing how individuals’ marriage behavior changes as a country develops. However, no existing data set allows an explicit investigation of the relationship between marriage and economic development. In this paper, we construct new cross-country panel data on marital statistics for 16 OECD countries from 1900 to 2000, in order to analyze such a relationship. We use this data set, together with cross-country data on real GDP per capita and the value added share of agriculture, manufacturing, and services sectors, to document two novel stylized facts. First, the fraction of a country’s population that is married displays a hump-shaped relationship with the level of real GDP per capita. Second, the fraction of the married correlates positively with the share of manufacturing in GDP. We conclude that the stage of economic development of a country is a key factor that affects individuals’ family formation decisions.


Author(s):  
Massoud Karshenas ◽  
Graham Pyatt

The familiar cross-country relationship between the incidence of poverty and the level of development is derived via a three-stage process, which avoids restrictive parametric assumptions regarding the shape of income distribution. It starts with the relationship within a given household survey data set between the incidence of poverty and the mean value of the ratio m/z, where m is a measure of individual well-being and z is the critical value of m relative to which the poor are identified. It is then shown that there is a one-to-one relationship between this relationship and the Lorenz curve. In the second stage of our analysis we establish inter alia a sufficient condition for the incidence of poverty to be less in whichever of any two countries the average value of m/z is smaller. These conditions are tested empirically. Conditions under which this average value will be proportional to the Gross Domestic Product per capita (GDP) are identified in the third stage. Both the second and third stages of our procedure provide opportunities for improving on the 'explanation' of poverty offered by the GDP per capita. In particular, the Sen Index apparently provides a much better way of accounting for differences in the incidence of poverty across countries. The importance of economic growth for reducing poverty should be qualified accordingly.


2020 ◽  
Vol 15 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Thuy-vy Nguyen ◽  
Jonathon McPhetres ◽  
Edward L. Deci

Based on previous theoretical models, the present research investigated three different psychological constructs (religious belief, trust in government, and the experience of personal control) as moderators of the link between country’s economic growth (i.e., Gross Domestic Product) and income inequality (i.e., Gini) on health, happiness, and life satisfaction. Using a large cross-national data set (N = 490,579), we found that personal control predicted health, happiness, and life satisfaction above and beyond reliance on God and trust in government. Religious belief predicted greater health and buffered the negative effect of income inequality on health only in wealthy economies, but yielded negative correlations with health in poor economies. The associations between personal control and trust in government with well-being outcomes were consistently positive across different levels of countries’ GDP and Gini. Further, personal control also served a compensatory function by buffering the negative effect of income inequality in wealthy economies.


2016 ◽  
Vol 37 (2) ◽  
pp. 96-104 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hasida Ben-Zur

Abstract. The current study investigated the associations of psychological resources, social comparisons, and temporal comparisons with general wellbeing. The sample included 142 community participants (47.9% men; age range 23–83 years), who compared themselves with others, and with their younger selves, on eight dimensions (e.g., physical health, resilience). They also completed questionnaires assessing psychological resources of mastery and self-esteem, and three components of subjective wellbeing: life satisfaction and negative and positive affect. The main results showed that high levels of psychological resources contributed to wellbeing, with self-enhancing social and temporal comparisons moderating the effects of resources on certain wellbeing components. Specifically, under low levels of mastery or self-esteem self-enhancing social or temporal comparisons were related to either higher life satisfaction or positive affect. The results highlight the role of resources and comparisons in promoting people’s wellbeing, and suggest that self-enhancing comparisons function as cognitive coping mechanisms when psychological resources are low.


Immiserizing Growth occurs when growth fails to benefit, or harms, those at the bottom. It is not a new concept, appearing such figures as Malthus, Ricardo and Marx. It is also not empirically insignificant, occurring in between 10% and 35% of cases, depending on the data set and the growth and poverty measures used. In spite of this, it has not received its due attention in the academic literature, dominated by the prevailing narrative that ‘growth is good for the poor’. The chapters in this volume aim to arrive at a better understanding of when, why and how growth fails the poor. They combine discussion of mechanisms of Immiserizing Growth with empirical data on trends in growth, poverty and related welfare indicators. In terms of mechanisms, politics and political economy are chosen as useful entry points to explain IG episodes. The disciplinary focus is diverse, drawing on economics, political economy, applied social anthropology, and development studies. A number of methodological approaches are represented including statistical analysis of household survey and cross-country data, detailed ethnographic work and case study analysis drawing on secondary data. Geographical coverage is wide including Bolivia, the Dominican Republic, Ecuador, India, Indonesia, Mexico, Nigeria, the People’s Republic of China, Singapore, and South Korea, in addition to cross-country analysis. As the first book-length treatment of Immiserizing Growth in the literature, we believe that this volume constitutes an important step in redirecting attention to this issue.


2021 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Yan Zhang ◽  
Richard Carciofo

Abstract Background In response to the rising concern with promoting the wellbeing of university students and relative lack of domain-specific wellbeing measurement instruments in China, the current study aimed to validate a Chinese version of the College Student Subjective Wellbeing Questionnaire (CSSWQ), a 16-item self-report English-language rating scale assessing four aspects of wellbeing (academic satisfaction, academic efficacy, school connectedness, and college gratitude). Methods The Chinese translation of the CSSWQ, the Students’ Life Satisfaction Scale, the Positive and Negative Affect Schedule, the 10-Item Big Five Personality Inventory, and demographic questions were completed by 252 Chinese students at a university in Suzhou, China. Results Exploratory factor analysis found four factors each with the same four items as in the original English scale. Each subscale showed good internal consistency. Test–retest for a one-month interval showed generally moderate reliability. As predicted, Pearson correlational analysis found positive correlations between the Chinese CSSWQ and life satisfaction, positive affect, extraversion, and GPA, and negative correlations with neuroticism and negative affect. Monthly income had small negative correlations with academic satisfaction and academic efficacy, smoking had a small positive correlation with school connectedness, and exercise had a small positive correlation with academic efficacy. Conclusion Data for the Chinese CSSWQ in the current study showed validity and reliability, supporting the use of this instrument as a measurement of college student wellbeing in China.


2021 ◽  
Vol 45 (2) ◽  
pp. 261-289
Author(s):  
Eduard J. Alvarez-Palau ◽  
Alfonso Díez-Minguela ◽  
Jordi Martí-Henneberg

AbstractThis study explores the relationship between railroad integration and regional development on the European periphery between 1870 and 1910, based on a regional data set including 291 spatial units. Railroad integration is proxied by railroad density, while per capita GDP is used as an indicator of economic development. The period under study is of particular relevance as it has been associated with the second wave of railroad construction in Europe and also coincides with the industrialization of most of the continent. Overall, we found that railroads had a significant and positive impact on the growth of per capita GDP across Europe. The magnitude of this relationship appears to be relatively modest, but the results obtained are robust with respect to a number of different specifications. From a geographical perspective, we found that railroads had a significantly greater influence on regions located in countries on the northern periphery of Europe than in other outlying areas. They also helped the economies of these areas to begin the process of catching up with the continent’s industrialized core. In contrast, the regions on the southern periphery showed lower levels of economic growth, with this exacerbating the preexisting divergence in economic development. The expansion of the railroad network in them was unable to homogenize the diffusion of economic development and tended to further benefit the regions that were already industrialized. In most of the cases, the capital effect was magnified, and this contributed to the consolidation of newly created nation-states.


Water ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (4) ◽  
pp. 499
Author(s):  
Salmatta Ibrahim A ◽  
Fayyaz Ali Memon ◽  
David Butler

Ensuring a sustainable urban water supply for developing/low-income countries requires an understanding of the factors affecting water consumption and technical evidence of individual consumption which can be used to design an improved water demand projection. This paper compared dry and rainy season water sources available for consumption and the end-use volume by each person in the different income groups. The study used a questionnaire survey to gather household data for a total of 398 households, which was analysed to develop the relationship between per capita water consumption characteristics: Socio-economic status, demographics, water use behaviour around indoor and outdoor water use activities. In the per capita water consumption patterns of Freetown, a seasonal variation was found: In the rainy season, per capita water consumption was found to be about 7% higher than the consumption for the full sample, whilst in the dry season, per capita water consumption was almost 14% lower than the full survey. The statistical analysis of the data shows that the average per capita water consumption for both households increases with income for informal slum-, low-, middle- and high-income households without piped connection (73, 78, 94 and 112 L/capita/day) and with connection (91, 97, 113 and 133 L/capita/day), respectively. The collected data have been used to develop 20 statistical models using the multiple linear stepwise regression method for selecting the best predictor variable from the data set. It can be seen from the values that the strongest significant relationships of per capita consumption are with the number of occupants (R = −0.728) in the household and time spent to fetch water for use (R = −0.711). Furthermore, the results reveal that the highest fraction of end use is showering (18%), then bathing (16%), followed by toilet use (14%). This is not in agreement with many developing countries where toilet use represents the largest component of indoor end use.


Author(s):  
Bjorn Lous ◽  
Johan Graafland

AbstractLiterature has established that, on a macroeconomic level, income inequality has a negative effect on average life satisfaction. An unresolved question is, however, which income groups are harmed by income inequality. In this paper we investigate this relationship at the microeconomic level combining national indicators of income inequality with individual data of life satisfaction from the World Values Survey for 39 countries over a period of 25 years. Tests on moderation by income category show that the Gini coefficient is most negatively related to life satisfaction of the lowest income groups, but the negative effects also extends to other income groups. For the income share of the top 1% we find a similar result. These findings show that income inequality is especially a concern for the lower income groups, but that the harmful effect of income inequality also spillovers to the life satisfaction of other income groups.


2006 ◽  
Vol 67 (3) ◽  
pp. 230-239 ◽  
Author(s):  
John M. Budd

Concerns about higher education abound, and these include concerns about productivity. The present study extends two previous examinations of faculty publishing productivity covering the years 1991 to 1993 and 1995 to 1997. Both members of ARL and a group of institutions included in ACRL’s data set are included. For both groups there are some increases in mean total numbers of publications, although the rate of increase has decreased since the second time period. Per capita rates of publication demonstrate an even flatter pattern. In recent years, there have been some changes in the dynamics of universities’ faculties; there are more part-time faculty and more faculty who are not on the tenure track. These factors, coupled with the publishing data, point to activities that all academic librarians should be aware of.


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