期刊名称：CORE Discussion Papers / Center for Operations Research and Econometrics (UCL), Louvain
出版年度：2009
卷号：1
出版社：Center for Operations Research and Econometrics (UCL), Louvain
摘要：In this paper we examine whether, and how, welfare economics should incorporate
the insights from happiness and satisfaction studies. Our main point is that
measuring well-being by reported satisfaction levels can come in con¨¢ict with
individuals¨ªjudgments about their own lives and that these individual judgments
should be respected. We propose an alternative measure of welfare in terms of
equivalent incomes that does respect individual preferences. Satisfaction surveys
are useful, however, to derive information about preferences. We illustrate our
approach with panel data from the Russian Longitudinal Monitoring Survey
(RLMS) for the period 1995-2003 and we compare the results for equivalent
incomes with the results for sub jective satisfaction.
