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Did the Decline in Social Capital Decrease American Happiness? A Relational Explanation of the Happiness Paradox
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TL;DR: The authors showed that the inclusion of social capital does improve the account of reported happiness and provided evidence of a decline in social capital indicators for the period 1975-2004, confirming Putnam's claim.
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Abstract: Most popular explanations of the happiness paradox cannot fully account for the lack of growth in US reported well-being during the last thirty years (Blanchflower and Oswald (2004)) In this paper we test an alternative hypothesis, namely that the decline in US social capital is responsible for what is left unexplained by previous research We provide three main findings First, we show that the inclusion of social capital does improve the account of reported happiness Second, we provide evidence of a decline in social capital indicators for the period 1975-2004, confirming Putnam's claim (Putnam (2000)) Finally, we show that failed growth of happiness is largely due to the decline of social capital and, in particular, to the decline of its relational and intrinsically motivated component
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Citations
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Bowling alone but tweeting together: the evolution of human interaction in the social networking era
TL;DR: In this article, the authors theoretically analyze how human interaction may evolve in a world characterized by the explosion of online networking and other Web-mediated ways of building and nurturing relationships, and they show that online networking yields a storage mechanism through which any individual contribution - e.g. a blog post, a comment, or a photo - is stored within a particular network and ready for virtual access by each member who connects to the network.
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The Easterlin paradox and the decline of social capital: An integrated explanation
TL;DR: This paper proposed an integrated explanation of these two stylised facts by extending the analysis of the relative income explanation of the Easterlin paradox to social relationships as enjoyable ends of choice, based on evidence-based results of social psychology, and constructed a model whose premises are (i) individuals produce social relationships by means of relational ability, (ii) that this ability is primarily shaped during infancy and remains largely unpredictable, and (iii) commercial pressure on children to consume in competition with others may displace the enjoyment of social relationships.
The Easterlin Paradox and the Decline of Social Capital: An Integrated Explanation
TL;DR: This article proposed an integrated explanation of these two stylised facts by extending the analysis of the relative income explanation of the Easterlin paradox to social relationships as enjoyable ends of choice, based on evidence-based results of social psychology, and constructed a model whose premises are (i) individuals produce social relationships by means of relational ability, (ii) that this ability is primarily shaped during infancy and remains largely unpredictable, and (iii) commercial pressure on children to consume in competition with others may displace the enjoyment of social relationships.
Civil economy: definition and strategies for sustainable well-living
TL;DR: The civil economy paradigm as discussed by the authors proposes a richer four-hand approach to political economy where actions of the traditional invisible hand of the market and the visible hand of institutions in solving failures are complemented and supported by the complementary action of two additional hands of grassroot citizens' participation and socially and environmentally responsible companies.
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What are the opportunities for future happiness research
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors argue that most fruitful results can be gained by comparing happiness to other human goals; by critically analyzing how the insights gained can be used for policy; by finding out what institutional prerequisites support happiness; as well as by turning to big issues so far neglected.
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References
•Book
Bowling Alone: The Collapse and Revival of American Community
Robert D. Putnam
- 01 Jan 2000
TL;DR: Putnam as mentioned in this paper showed that changes in work, family structure, age, suburban life, television, computers, women's roles and other factors are isolating Americans from each other in a trend whose reflection can clearly be seen in British society.
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Bowling alone: The collapse and revival of American community
TL;DR: As an example of how the current "war on terrorism" could generate a durable civic renewal, Putnam points to the burst in civic practices that occurred during and after World War II, which he says "permanently marked" the generation that lived through it and had a "terrific effect on American public life over the last half-century."
5.4K
Does Economic Growth Improve the Human Lot? Some Empirical Evidence
Richard A. Easterlin
- 01 Jan 1974
TL;DR: In this article, the authors discuss the association of income and happiness and suggest a Duesenberry-type model, involving relative status considerations as an important determinant of happiness.
5.1K
Effects of Externally Mediated Rewards on Intrinsic Motivation.
TL;DR: Vroom et al. as mentioned in this paper investigated the effects of external rewards on intrinsic motivation to perform an activity and found that when money was used as an external reward, intrinsic motivation tended to decrease, whereas when verbal reinforcement and positive feedback were used to increase.
4.4K
•Journal Article
The Theory Of The Leisure Class
TL;DR: The Pecuniary standard of living is defined in this paper as "conspicuous leisure, conspicuous consumption, and higher learning as an expression of the pecuniary culture".
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