Lifestyle Tradeoffs and the Decline of Societal Well-Being: An Agent-Based Model

Christopher Thron ()
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Christopher Thron: http://www.tamuct.edu/departments/instructors/thronchristopher.php

Journal of Artificial Societies and Social Simulation, 2016, vol. 19, issue 2, 5

Abstract: This paper presents a semi-quantitative mathematical model of the changes over time in the statistical distribution of well-being of individuals in a society. The model predicts that when individuals overvalue the more socially conspicuous aspects of well-being in their lifestyle choices, then the average well-being of the overall population may experience continuous decline. In addition to tradeoff cost and overvaluation, we identify statistical variation in individuals’ well-being and turnover within the population as key factors driving negative trends. We investigate the influence of the effects of heterogeneity in the population, as well as economic and/or technological progress.

Keywords: Well-Being; Conspicuous Consumption; Overvaluation; Tradeoffs; Satisfaction; Social Capital (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2016-03-31
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:jas:jasssj:2015-100-2

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