Changes In Economic Well-being Research Articles

Changes in Subjective Well-Being in India

Despite the growing literature on subjective well-being (SWB), few studies have focused on developing countries. Applying robust OLS and ordered probit models to the India Human Development Survey panel data in 2005 and 2012, we empirically assess SWB changes in 2005–2012, based on a self-reported measure of changes in economic well-being, as a function of household and state covariates in 2005. This is in sharp contrast with earlier studies’ focus on the levels of SWB. Another point of departure of our study is to compare the covariates of SWB changes with those of objective well-being (OWB) changes, proxied by the relative growth in real per capita household consumption expenditure between 2005 and 2012, to identify specific micro-level correlates of SWB changes. Households with an older and educated head in a larger household, located in urban areas or affluent states in 2005 tend to experience improvement in both SWB and OWB between 2005 and 2012. In contrast, households with a female household head, with more male members in the labour market, with regular access to mass media, without members suffering from non-communicable diseases or disabilities are more likely to be better off subjectively without experiencing the corresponding improvement in OWB. The policy challenges raise serious concerns.

Imagining Economic Growth in Post-War Britain

Abstract This article contends that common representations of the history of the British economy and economic policy in the ‘Golden Age’ period (circa 1950–73) as a story of ‘failure’ rely overwhelmingly on one measure, that of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth. Drawing on the foundational criticisms of this metric made by Simon Kuznets, it is argued that, for this period of British economic history, shortfalls in measured GDP growth in comparison with other rich countries are a very poor measure of changes in economic well-being in the UK. If we follow this argument and discard the belief that one metric can summarize trends in such well-being, the notion of ‘failure’ in this period should be set aside in favour of a more nuanced, multidimensional assessment.

Does psychological well-being mediate economic well-being? short-term evidence from a multifaceted program in the Philippines

ABSTRACT Can changes in psychological well-being lead to changes in economic well-being? Across many settings, the view that inexpensive psychological interventions can lead to meaningful change in economic well-being has become popular. Examining data from participants of a multifaceted program in the Philippines we find that program participants experience (i) positive changes in income and expenditures, (ii) relatively large changes in measures of psychological well-being, but that (iii) these changes in psychological well-being do not mediate changes in economic well-being. This suggests, at least in the short-term, that changes in psychological attributes may have small effects on measures of economic well-being.

African immigrant women’s transition and integration into Canadian society: expectations, stressors, and tensions

This article contributes to an emergent body of research that explores African immigrant women’s experiences in Western destination countries. Foregrounding these immigrant women’s voices in this research, we aim to better understand the challenges they grapple with as newcomers to Canada. Specifically, our study sought to explore the stressors they faced within and outside the family and how these stressors mediate their transition and integration into Canadian society. We conducted, audio-recorded, transcribed verbatim, and thematically analyzed two focus groups with twenty African immigrant women in Alberta, a Western province among Canada’s ten provinces. Three main themes emerged from our study: (1) Participants felt ill prepared to face the challenges of starting life anew in Canada, which included in particular navigating changes in economic wellbeing and gender roles; (2) Participants experienced a lack of community support, which was reflected in both mental/emotional health and parenting issues; and (3) Participants expressed frustration with the manner in which Canadian socio-legal systems manage immigrants’ family issues. Our findings underscore the need to actively engage African immigrant women and men in the development of policies and practices that mediate their everyday lives in Canada. Such policies and practices should consider the changing gender relations, cultural knowledge, and informal support channels within African immigrant communities.

Through the prism of Spain. Socio-economic causes of different outcomes of Russian and Spanish civil wars

The article examines the socio-economic causes of the outcome of the Spanish Civil War (1936-1936), which, as opposed to the Russian Civil War, resulted in the victory of the “Whites”. Choice of Spain as the object of comparison with Russia is justified not only by similarity of civil wars occurred in the two countries in the XX century, but also by a large number of common features in their history. Based on statistical data on the changes in economic well-being of different strata of Spanish population during several decades before the civil war, the authors formulate the hypothesis according to which the increase of real incomes of Spaniards engaged in agriculture is “responsible” for their conservative political sympathies. As a result, contrary to the situation in Russia, where the peasantry did not support the Whites, in Spain the peasants’ position predetermined the outcome of the confrontation resulting in the victory of the Spanish analogue of the Whites. According to the authors, the possibility of stable increase of Spanish peasants’ incomes was caused by the nation’s non-involvement in World War I and also by more limited, compared to Russia and some other countries, spending on creation of heavy (primarily military-related) industry in Spain.

Paternal Incarceration and Children’s Food Insecurity: A Consideration of Variation and Mechanisms

Despite growing attention to the unintended intergenerational consequences of incarceration, little is known about whether and how paternal incarceration is related to children’s food insecurity. In this article, I use data from the Fragile Families and Child Well-Being Study to examine the relationship between paternal incarceration and children’s food insecurity. Propensity score matching models indicate that recent paternal incarceration, defined as incarceration in the past 2 years, is associated with an increased likelihood of food insecurity among 5-year-old children, but only among children living with their biological fathers prior to his incarceration. These associations cannot be explained by the mechanisms considered, including post-incarceration changes in economic well-being, parental relationships, maternal parenting, and maternal health. Taken together, the findings highlight the salience of the father’s residential status in linking paternal incarceration to children’s food insecurity, and they have a number of implications for policy and practice.

Does Changing Economic Well-Being Shape Resentment About Inequality in China?

The political consequences of income inequality in China have attracted increasing attention among researchers, and conventional wisdom states that economic development can mitigate negative views on inequality. I investigate the effects of subjective and objective changes in economic well-being on public opinion concerning income inequality based on a 2004 Chinese national survey. On the one hand, I find weak evidence of a negative correlation between perceived better economic well-being and negative opinion about inequality in China. On the other hand, I identify consistent evidence of a negative correlation between objective intergenerational upward mobility and negative views about inequality. It is worth noting that while the effect of intergenerational upward mobility is large, it is unable to completely reverse negative views about inequality among Chinese citizens. Hence, I suggest that economic development plays only a limited role in mitigating anger about inequality in China.

Women’s education and fertility transition in sub-Saharan Africa

Sub-Saharan Africa was the last major part of the developing world to experience fertility decline, and fertility in the region remains high compared to fertility in Asia and Latin America. Correspondingly, women’s education, known to be an important factor related to fertility via multiple pathways, is comparatively low in the region. Numerous studies have documented the importance of increasing women’s education as a key variable contributing to fertility decline in the developing world. This paper uses aggregated data to examine the role of increasing women’s educational attainment in the ongoing fertility transition in sub-Saharan Africa, in conjunction with other socioeconomic changes such as declining infant and child mortality and changes in economic well-being. In addition, detailed patterns of fertility differences by educational attainment are also examined across countries using individual-level data, highlighting the significant role in fertility transition of increasing secondary and higher education.

Favourable changes in economic well-being and self-rated health among the elderly

Adverse economic shocks exert an influence on health perceptions, but little is known about the effect of sudden positive changes in a person’s financial situation on self-rated health, particularly among low income people. This paper explores the association between an increase in the amount of non-contribution pensions, public cash transfers given to Costa Rican elderly of low socio-economic status (SES) and changes in self-rated health over time. The analysis is based on data from CRELES, the “Costa Rican Study on Longevity and Healthy Aging”, which is based on a probabilistic sample of people born in 1945 or earlier, and living in Costa Rica by 2002. The fieldwork for the first and second waves of CRELES was conducted from 2004 to 2006, and from 2006 to 2008, respectively. The Costa Rican Government raised the amount of the non-contribution pension for the poor 100% before July 2007, and an additional 100% after that date. Due to the CRELES fieldwork schedule, the data have a natural quasi-experimental design, given that approximately half of CRELES respondents were interviewed before July 2007, independently of their status in receiving the public cash transfers. Using random effects ordered probit regression models, we find that people who experienced such increase report a greater improvement in self-rated health between waves than those who experienced a smaller increase and than the rest of the interviewees. Results suggest that increases in income may lead to a greater improvement in self-rated health.

Assessing the Causal Effect of Childbearing on Economic Wellbeing in Albania

In this paper we analyze to what extent births may lead to changes in economic wellbeing. In contrast to most previous studies on this issue we apply appropriate econometric techniques based on longitudinal micro data in order to identify the causal effects of child bearing events on income. We perform our analysis on longitudinal data from the Albanian Living Standard Measurement Survey. We take a quasi experimental approach, that is, we consider the experience of a childbearing event as the treatment variable, and our measure of wellbeing as the outcome variable. In order to deal with the confounding due to the presence of systematic differences in background characteristics between the treatment groups, we first fit a multiple linear regression model that includes relevant background characteristics as well as an indicator variable for the treatment (i.e., childbearing). This estimation is then compared and contrasted with a matching approach, based on the bias-corrected matching estimator introduced by Abadie and Imbens (2002). Our analysis suggests that there is some evidence that childbearing events can in fact increase household wellbeing in Albania. In addition, the treatment effect is highly heterogeneous with respect to observable characteristics such as the woman's working status and the woman's parity. All the results appear to be robust with respect to the estimated equivalence scale: changing the equivalence scale leaves the childbearing effect on income positive and non-significant.

Growing up Healthy: The Ecology of Child Well-Being

Amato, P. R., & Booth, A. (1997). A Generation at Risk: Growing Up in an Era of Family Upheaval. Cambridge MS: Harvard University Press. Hardcover ISBN 0-674-29293-9. price $35.00. Weissberg. R. P., Gullata, R. P., Hampton, R. L, Ryan, B. A., & Adams, G, R. (Eds.). (1997). Healthy Children: Enhancing Children's Wellness. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications. Softcover ISBN 0-7619-1092- 1, price $29.95. Growing up healthy has never been a simple task; however, begetting a generation of healthy, well-functioning individuals is more complex today than it was in the past. The primary source of health-related habits, attitudes and beliefs, namely the family (Campbell, 1986; Doherty & McCubbin, 1985), has changed dramatically over the past three decades in response to changing social and cultural paradigms. And the World Health Organization's expanded conceptualization of health in 1974 to include physical. psychological and social functioning rather than just the absence of disease, created a new genre of threats to child well-being, Finally, a growing demand for health has perpetuated a culture that is highly sensitive to potential barriers to well-being (Barsky, 1988), particularly among children. The question begging to be asked is, how can children grow up healthy and reach their fullest potential? The impact of changing family structure and family processes ties at the heart of the child well-being literature. Theoretical, methodological and empirical evidence is converging to indicate that family processes, particularly parental involvement, are the most important determinants of child well-being (Acock & Demo, 1994; Amato & Keith, 1991 a, 199 lb-, See also October 1998 issue of Family Relations). Despite the ongoing debate regarding the importance of family structure (Poponoe, 1993; Skolnick, 1994), we know that children raised in families with low levels of parental conflict, and who have parents that provide monitoring and support, have higher levels of physical, psychological and social well-being. By taking different perspectives, the two books reviewed for this essay frame the issue of child well-being nicely. Amato and Booth present the results of longitudinal data examining how changes within the family of origin over time influence the psychological and social well-being of children upon entering young adulthood. Weissberg and colleagues, on the other hand, present a bounty of empirical information regarding the most effective interventions for promoting physical, psychological and social wellbeing among children and adolescents. The authors and editors of both books support and advance Our understanding of child wellbeing by demonstrating that a child's well-being results from complex interactions between the active individual and the people and events in their social milieu over time. In A Generation at Risk, Amato and Booth examine how changes in economic well-being, gender roles, family relationships, and family structure within the family of origin affect children's psychological and social well-being during young adulthood. Using self-reported, nationally representative data from the Study of Marital Instability Over the Life Course (N = 2,033), the authors examined direct effect, moderated (e.g., gender. age) and mediated (i.e., through parental support and control) models of the association between changes in the family of origin and adult child wellbeing. Results generally support the life course hypotheses anticipating that changes within the family have long tasting affects on individual family members (oftentimes through parental support): however, results also indicated that these associations varied by age and gender depending upon the outcome of interest. Amato and Booth do an excellent job presenting the real world effects of family change on young adults and staying clear of the ideological arguments regarding the state of the American family (although the use of upheaval in the title suggests that the family is in decline). …

The dynamics of income distribution: Economic mobility in Sweden in comparison with the United States

Cross-sectional income studies often tend to give the impression that people's economic status is relatively stable and static. However, longitudinal data have shown that changes in economic well-being are surprisingly frequent over the life course. This paper examines economic mobility in Sweden in comparison with earlier American findings. A primary focus of attention is to explore whether the great impact of “family composition changes,” as a major cause of economic change in the United States, is also present in Sweden. The findings show the importance of changes in family composition in both countries, but this impact varies strongly both between different subgroups of each population and when comparing the subgroups cross-nationally. Whereas family composition changes are tied to changes in economic well-being for women in both countries, this connection does not hold for American men and Swedish children.

Economic predictors of mental health service utilization: a time-series analysis.

This research was designed to understand the relationships between economic indicators and mental health service utilization. Six monthly and three quarterly time-series analyses were done to assess the time-dependent association between three state-level economic indices and two measures of mental health service utilization. Consistent with the existing literature, increases in manufacturing employment were inversely related to both first admissions in state hospitals and case openings in community outpatient facilities. Labor force participation was also inversely related to first admissions to state hospitals. No relationship was found between service employment and either of the mental health service use indices. The specific findings suggest that two processes may be operating in the relationship of labor force participation and manufacturing employment with mental health service utilization. Some of the findings suggest a "crisis" process, in which service use increases rapidly following an economic stressor, whereas other findings suggest a more insidious process, in which economic stressors slowly weaken the mental health of the community and eventually lead to increased mental health service use. These results can be used to better inform social policy and preventive interventions by highlighting the human costs of changes in economic well-being. The need for more ecological research is discussed.

Recent Widowhood, Remarriage, and Changes in Economic Well-Being

This research examines how changes in family composition due to the death of a spouse and subsequent remarriage affect economic status. The results of both descriptive analyses and a test of a simple multivariate model show that the death of a spouse translates into a substantial economic loss particularly for widows. Furthermore the economic gains for both widows and widowers who remarry are generally large compared to those of persons who remain widowed for at least five years. A key finding of this work is that the economic situations of the continuously widowed and the remarrying widowed differ markedly throughout their respective spells of widowhood....Data for this investigation come from the 1983 release of the [U.S.] Panel Study of Income Dynamics (PSID). (EXCERPT)

Poverty and living arrangements among older women: are changes in economic well-being underestimated?

Poverty rates have fallen more slowly over the last three decades among older women living alone than for other groups of elderly persons. The simultaneous increase in the percentage of elderly women living alone has given rise to speculation that these two phenomena are related. Using 1950 and 1980 Census data this relationship was explored. Over the 30-year period, poverty among elderly women fell by 35.9 percentage points. It would have fallen further if women had not changed the types of households in which they lived, but by only an additional 3 percentage points. The effect of changes in household composition, however, was greatest for the oldest of the elderly individuals.

Marital disruption and poverty: The role of survey procedures in artificially creating poverty

The economic well-being of widows is a growing public concern. Though widowhood undoubtedly precipitates major changes in economic well-being we show that its role in increasing poverty especially in the short term may be seriously overstated by traditional data-collection methods. Using longitudinal [U.S.] data that allow us to follow women as wives and widows we find that the income of husbands is systematically excluded from the income reported by women widowed during or after the income reference year. This exclusion not only exaggerates the rise in poverty immediately following widowhood but also overstates the percentage of widows who leave poverty in the next reporting period. (EXCERPT)