2019 Fiscal Year Research-status Report
Global study of happiness
| Project/Area Number |
18K01645
|
|---|
| Research Institution | Hitotsubashi University |
|---|
Principal Investigator |
小野 浩 一橋大学, 大学院経営管理研究科, 教授 (80747981)
|
|---|
| Project Period (FY) |
2018-04-01 – 2021-03-31
|
| Keywords | happiness / subjective well-being / inequality / parenting |
|---|
| Outline of Annual Research Achievements |
In 2019, we made further progress on the project in terms of data analyses and statistical modeling. I spent the first part of the year cleaning and preparing the data for statistical analyses. I also updated the data by collecting and importing country-level data from various databases (e.g. inequality, poverty, government spending, taxation, etc.) to augment the existing database of 176 countries. During the summer, I met with project collaborators Dr. Jordi Quoidbach and Dr. Christopher Browning, to conduct empirical analyses.
|
| Current Status of Research Progress |
Current Status of Research Progress
2: Research has progressed on the whole more than it was originally planned.
Reason
We tested hypotheses relating to the effect of macro-level inequality on happiness, the effect of children on parents' happiness under a broad range of macro-economic indicators (e.g. welfare spending, taxation, etc.). We are conducting further empirical analyses as well as robustness checks of existing models.
|
| Strategy for Future Research Activity |
We plan to test additional hypotheses with our data, looking beyond general happiness in some cases. For example, we are interested in looking at the core doctrine of meritocracy and capitalism: Can people in this country get ahead by working hard, or not? In what contexts are people more likely to answer this question in the affirmative? Do meritocracy and capitalism go hand in hand? Are people less likely to believe in meritocracy in countries with high taxation and welfare spending, e.g. Scandinavian countries? Or is it possible to achieve the hard work ethic whilst maintaining a high-level of welfare for the citizens? These are the issues that we would like to explore in the coming year.
|
| Causes of Carryover |
We did not use up our budget allocated for items purchases. The main reason for this is that I was planning to invite Dr. Jordi Quoidbach to Tokyo in spring of 2020. However, we had to postpone his visit because of coronavirus outbreak in Japan and other parts of the world. We plan to use our budget for travel and for purchases such as statistical software and books in the next academic year.
|
