The Dark Side of Chinese Growth: Declining Social Capital and Well-Being in Times of Economic Boom

Stefano Bartolini and Francesco Sarracino

World Development, 2015, vol. 74, issue C, 333-351

Abstract: Over the last two decades, subjective well-being in China declined. Using data from the World Values Survey, we identify predictors of the trend in life satisfaction in China during 1990–2007. Social comparisons and the decline of social capital explain the decrease in well-being, and they are strictly connected to the increasing orientation of Chinese people toward materialistic values. The increasing role of social comparisons is also a key factor in the increase of well-being inequalities between income classes.

Keywords: China; Easterlin paradox; economic growth; life satisfaction; social capital; Oaxaca–Blinder decomposition (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2015
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (68)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0305750X15001199
Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:wdevel:v:74:y:2015:i:c:p:333-351

DOI: 10.1016/j.worlddev.2015.05.010

Access Statistics for this article

World Development is currently edited by O. T. Coomes

More articles in World Development from Elsevier
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Catherine Liu ().