The asymmetric experience of positive and negative economic growth: global evidence using subjective well-being data

De Keulenaer, Femke; De Neve, Jan-Emmanuel; Kavetsos, Georgios; Norton, Michael I.; Van Landeghem, Bert; Ward, George

doi:10.1162/rest_a_00697

The asymmetric experience of positive and negative economic growth: global evidence using subjective well-being data

Femke De Keulenaer, Jan-Emmanuel De Neve, Georgios Kavetsos, Michael I. Norton, Bert Van Landeghem and George Ward

Are individuals more sensitive to losses than gains in terms of economic growth?We find that measures of subjective well-being are more than twice as sensitive to negative as compared to positive economic growth. We use Gallup World Poll data from over 150 countries, BRFSS data on 2.3 million U.S. respondents, and Eurobarometer data that cover multiple business cycles over four decades. This research provides a new perspective on the welfare cost of business cycles, with implications for growth policy and the nature of the long-run relationship between GDP and subjective well-being. ? 2018 by the President and Fellows of Harvard College and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

1 May 2018

The Review of Economics and Statistics 100(2) , pp.362-375, 2018

DOI: 10.1162/rest_a_00697

https://direct.mit.edu/rest/article-abstract/100/2/362/58456/The-Asymmetric-Experience-of-Positive-and-Negative?redirectedFrom=fulltext

This Journal article is published under the centre's Community Wellbeing programme.