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The welfare economics of infectious happiness

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  • Povey, Richard

Abstract

We summarise evidence for infectious happiness, exploring implications for a number of welfare issues: labour oversupply due to relative income effects, altruistic donation, public goods contribution. Awareness of infectiousness is welfare-improving, but not first-best optimal. Government intervention remains potentially beneficial.

Suggested Citation

  • Povey, Richard, 2015. "The welfare economics of infectious happiness," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 133(C), pages 1-3.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:ecolet:v:133:y:2015:i:c:p:1-3
    DOI: 10.1016/j.econlet.2015.05.006
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Semih Tumen & Tugba Zeydanli, 2015. "Is Happiness Contagious? Separating Spillover Externalities from the Group-Level Social Context," Journal of Happiness Studies, Springer, vol. 16(3), pages 719-744, June.
    2. Richard Layard, 2006. "Happiness and Public Policy: a Challenge to the Profession," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 116(510), pages 24-33, March.
    3. Cohen-Cole, Ethan & Fletcher, Jason M., 2008. "Is obesity contagious? Social networks vs. environmental factors in the obesity epidemic," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 27(5), pages 1382-1387, September.
    4. John Knight & Ramani Gunatilaka, 2017. "Is Happiness Infectious?," Scottish Journal of Political Economy, Scottish Economic Society, vol. 64(1), pages 1-24, February.
    5. Andrew E. Clark & Paul Frijters & Michael A. Shields, 2008. "Relative Income, Happiness, and Utility: An Explanation for the Easterlin Paradox and Other Puzzles," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 46(1), pages 95-144, March.
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    Cited by:

    1. Hang Fang & Ting Yu & Michael S Delgado & Qianheng Qian, 2024. "Infectious happiness in heterogeneous social networks: evidence from rural China," Economics Bulletin, AccessEcon, vol. 44(3), pages 1188-1195.
    2. John Knight & Ramani Gunatilaka, 2017. "Is Happiness Infectious?," Scottish Journal of Political Economy, Scottish Economic Society, vol. 64(1), pages 1-24, February.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Income; Happiness; Infectiousness; Donation; Labour;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • B5 - Schools of Economic Thought and Methodology - - Current Heterodox Approaches
    • D1 - Microeconomics - - Household Behavior
    • D6 - Microeconomics - - Welfare Economics
    • H4 - Public Economics - - Publicly Provided Goods
    • J2 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demand and Supply of Labor
    • N3 - Economic History - - Labor and Consumers, Demography, Education, Health, Welfare, Income, Wealth, Religion, and Philanthropy

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