Paris School of Economics - L'Agence Française de Développement
Paris School of Economics - L'Agence Française de Développement
Paris School of Economics - L'Agence Française de Développement
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Figure<br />
GDP per capita in the 2000s and Life Satisfaction<br />
10<br />
9<br />
8<br />
7<br />
6<br />
5<br />
4<br />
3<br />
2<br />
1<br />
Source: WVS.<br />
11.D<br />
0 10,000 20,000 30,000 40,000<br />
GDP per capita in constant 2000 dollars<br />
Satisfaction = 0.47 In(GDP) + 2.81; R2 = 0.51<br />
Note: GDP and average satisfaction are calculated for the last available year for each country (spanning from 2001 to 2008).<br />
Development and the inequality<br />
<strong>of</strong> subjective well-being<br />
As a complement to the average incomeaverage<br />
happiness relationship, we have also<br />
looked at the relation between average life<br />
satisfaction scores and their standard <strong>de</strong>viation<br />
(treating well-being as a continuous variable).<br />
Cross-country analysis produces a striking<br />
observation: the higher the average national<br />
happiness, the lower the within-country standard<br />
<strong>de</strong>viation <strong>of</strong> happiness. As such, richer<br />
countries have both higher average scores<br />
and lower standard <strong>de</strong>viations <strong>of</strong> life satisfaction<br />
(Figure 12). This suggests one potentially<br />
important benefit <strong>of</strong> GDP growth for lowincome<br />
countries. If individuals are risk-averse,<br />
reducing the variance <strong>of</strong> SWB in a given<br />
society is a valuable objective <strong>of</strong> public policy.<br />
[ 112 ] © AFD / Measure for Measure / How Well Do We Measure Development? / December 2011
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