Developments in the measurement of subjective well-being
Developments in the measurement of subjective well-being
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DOI：
10.1257/089533006776526030
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发表时间：
2006-12-01
影响因子：
8.4
通讯作者：
Krueger, AB
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Kahneman, D;Krueger, AB
对主观幸福感的直接报告如果能够以可信的方式进行，可能会在衡量消费者偏好和社会福利方面发挥有用的作用。幸福感可以通过主观调查来衡量吗，甚至是大致的？在这篇文章中，我们讨论了个体对主观幸福感问题的反应如何随着他们的环境和其他因素的变化而变化的研究。我们将争辩说，区分不同的效用概念是卓有成效的，而不是假设衡量一个单一的、统一的概念，它激励着人类的所有选择，并记录所有相关的感觉和经验。尽管衡量幸福感的各种方法对某些目的是有用的，但重要的是要认识到，主观幸福感衡量的是个人对其经历的感知的特征，而不是经济学家通常认为的他们的效用。如果这些感知更接近于实际体验的时间，并直接参考实际体验，那么它们就是对实际感受的更准确的衡量。最后，我们提出了U指数，这是一种痛苦指数，它衡量了人们处于不愉快状态的时间比例，其优点是不需要对个人感受有一个基本的概念。
Direct reports of subjective well-being may have a useful role in the measurement of consumer preferences and social welfare, if they can be done in a credible way. Can well-being be measured by a subjective survey, even approximately? In this paper, we discuss research on how individuals' responses to subjective well-being questions vary with their circumstances and other factors. We will argue that it is fruitful to distinguish among different conceptions of utility rather than presume to measure a single, unifying concept that motivates all human choices and registers all relevant feelings and experiences. While various measures of well-being are useful for some purposes, it is important to recognize that subjective well-being measures features of individuals' perceptions of their experiences, not their utility as economists typically conceive of it. Those perceptions are a more accurate gauge of actual feelings if they are reported closer to the time of, and in direct reference to, the actual experience. We conclude by proposing the U-index, a misery index of sorts, which measures the proportion of time that people spend in an unpleasant state, and has the virtue of not requiring a cardinal conception of individuals' feelings.