The impact of an economic boom on the level and distribution of well-being: Ireland, 1994-2001

David Madden ()

No 201015, Working Papers from School of Economics, University College Dublin

Abstract: The impact of increased affluence on life satisfaction is a matter of some controversy. This paper examines the impact of the recent economic boom in Ireland upon the level and distribution of various domains of well-being. There is evidence of a substantial increase in life satisfaction in the domain of finance and of an improvement in mental wellbeing. There is a reduction in inequality and polarisation for virtually all domains of life satisfaction. A social welfare function which is increasing and concave in individual well-being would show an improvement in social welfare over the period.

Keywords: Subjective well-being; Ordinal inequality; Polarisation; Social welfare; Well-being--Economic aspects--Ireland; Wealth--Ireland; Equality--Ireland; Public welfare--Ireland (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I12 I31 I32 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2010-05
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http://hdl.handle.net/10197/2650 First version, 2010 (application/pdf)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:ucn:wpaper:201015

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