【题目】 The effects of income on happiness among East and South Asian countries: societal values matter?

【讲座人】萧代基教授

【时间】11月7日 （周一）下午3:00

【地点】交大财经校区教学楼八楼学术交流厅

【简介】萧代基教授，1985年获美国密西根大学博士学位，现任台湾中研院研究员，曾任台湾中华济研究院院长。主要研究领域为环境与资源经济学、自然资源经济、政策与管理、计量经济学，在《美国经济评论》（AER）, JEEM等国际顶级经济学杂志发表一系列研究成果。曾参与的研究课题包括空气污染、水污染与气候变迁的成本效益分析与风险评估、水污染防治费、空气污染防治费、土壤与地下水整治费、水污染总量管制制度、嫌恶性设施之设置制度、污染防治与自然资源保育之管理与经济诱因制度、水权制度、限制发展区报偿制度等。

【摘要】

During the last two decades, economic studies on happiness, in particular studies on the effect of income on happiness have grown rapidly. Ng (2002) has highlighted the East-Asian happiness gap: the East Asian countries are performing well economically, however, poorly in happiness. Using the World Values Survey data, this paper aims to estimate the effect of income on happiness among the East and South Asian countries and examine the moderating effect of societal values. Results of descriptive statistics reveal that Thailand and Philippines are the happiest countries; whereas the South Korea and India are the least happy. The effect of income on happiness is found to be the lowest (and insignificant) in Thailand and Philippines; and the highest (and strongly significant) in South Korea and Taiwan. The effect of income becomes insignificant once it is moderated by the societal values. Thus, the societal values are the main drivers of differential income effects among the East and South Asian countries. Societal values could be the partial explanation of the East-Asian happiness gap and might refute the relevance of Easterlin paradox.