… in the Journal of Happiness Studies (what a great title for an academic journal, no?!).
It is called Crime and Happiness amongst Heads of Household in Malawi and it is written with my friend and Bath colleague, Tim Hinks. A working paper version is available here. The abstract is below:
This paper uses 2005 Malawian data to investigate the link between crime and happiness in Malawi. Detailed descriptive statistics reveal that crime is a gendered issue and econometric analyses show that males and females respond differently to different crime variables. In particular, for males being attacked has a negative impact on happiness and neighbourhood crime rates have a U-shaped effect on happiness with happiness at its lowest when 11.2% of respondents in a neighbourhood reported being a victim. For females only a subjective feeling of insecurity impacts negatively on happiness.
2 comments:
Looks interesting, is there much else on happiness in developing countries? Seems like a fruitful research avenue.
It's mostly developed countries, but there is some work on developing countries. Tim introduced me to happiness research and this is our second paper. We have one that looks at religion and polygamy. The paper is at:
http://www3.interscience.wiley.com/journal/121460513/abstract
Again, the abstract:
Happiness equations for Malawi are estimated using a new household survey. It is apparent that absolute consumption level is strongly associated with satisfaction. Both objective and subjective relative consumption in the neighbourhood is positively associated with satisfaction. Male satisfaction is associated strongly with relative consumption but female satisfaction is not. Separated or widowed females are less happy than males indicating a vulnerability that acts as a disincentive to leave husbands during marital problems. Polygamous females in traditional religions are less satisfied than other females whilst there is some evidence that male Muslims in polygamous relationships are more satisfied.
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