Work, Subjective Well-being and Capabilities
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Date
2014-02-07
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Abstract
Chapter 2: This chapter explores the link between poverty as capability deprivation and current life
satisfaction. Using German panel data, I examine both whether capability deprivation does hurt and
whether individuals eventually adapt. To detect capability deprivation I draw on the notion of an
inadequate income together with nonconsumption data of specific commodities. Assumptions and
conditions rendering this approach valid are scrutinised. The results indicate that capability
deprivation reduces life satisfaction significantly. Moreover the evidence also suggests that
individuals fail to adapt within the subsequent four to six years. Finally, the mere lowness of income
fails to capture its inadequacy.
Chapter 3: This chapter scrutinises the influence of job characteristics on subjective well-being. The
capability approach perspective provides a profound conceptual underpinning that supports the
interpretation of the results and guides the operationalisation of job characteristics. The empirical
analysis employs both a confirmatory factor analysis and the common life and job satisfaction
frameworks. Job characteristics are found to increase both job and life satisfaction significantly.
Moreover, they also account for what has been called procedural utility and occupational
differences in job satisfaction alike. The results suggest that exercises in this vein may help in
setting the stage for a more comprehensive and compelling approach to human well-being.
Chapter 4: Job characteristics have been studied from various perspectives. Their influence on
labour supply, however, has mostly been neglected. The aim of this paper is thus twofold: First, we
propose a consistent conceptual framework, based on Lancaster’s approach to consumer theory, for
rationalizing such characteristics in conventional theoretical labour supply models. Within this
framework, we investigate two main hypotheses: Favorable job characteristics imply (i) lower
wage elasticities of labour supply but (ii) larger (less negative) income elasticities. Second, we
provide new empirical evidence on the job characteristics-labour supply nexus by estimating a
standard discrete choice model using Australian data. The empirical findings lend support to our
hypotheses and thus buttress the importance of job characteristics in labour supply decisions.
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Keywords
capability approach, poverty, capability deprivation, subjective well-being, life satisfaction, job characteristics
Subjects based on RSWK
Beruf, Wohlbefinden, Zufriedenheit