Happy Peasants and Frustrated Achievers? Agency, Capabilities, and Subjective Well-Being

Carol Graham and Milena Nikolova

No 2013-013, Working Papers from Human Capital and Economic Opportunity Working Group

Abstract: We explore the relationship between agency and hedonic and evaluative dimensions of well-being, using data from the Gallup World Poll. We posit that individuals emphasize one well-being dimension over the other, depending on their agency. We test four hypotheses including whether: (i) positive levels of well-being in one dimension coexist with negative ones in another; and (ii) individuals place a different value on agency depending on their positions in the well-being and income distributions. We find that: (i) agency is more important to the evaluative well-being of respondents with more means; (ii) negative levels of hedonic well-being coexist with positive levels of evaluative well-being as people acquire agency; and (iii) both income and agency are less important to well-being at highest levels of the well-being distribution. We hope to contribute insight into one of the most complex and important components of well-being, namely, people's capacity to pursue fulfilling lives.

Keywords: agency; capabilities; subjective well-being (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: G18 I14 O5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2013-09
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-hap, nep-hpe and nep-ltv
Note: MIP
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

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http://humcap.uchicago.edu/RePEc/hka/wpaper/Graham ... 3_happy-peasants.pdf First version, April 2013 (application/pdf)

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