[ECON20141308]

发展经济学研讨会

 【总第26期】 

【时间】 11月21日，星期五， 12:00—13:30 

【地点】明德主楼734会议室  
  【主讲人】叶茂亮 （with Hongbin Li, Pak-wai Liu and Junsen Zhang）  
  【主题】Does Money Buy Happiness Evidence from Twins in Urban China  
 
 
  【摘要】Whether money makes people happy is a fundamental question in economics. This paper contributes to the literature on the effect of income on happiness, and to the best of our knowledge, it is the first study of this kind that draws on twins data. We control for the crucial genetic factors and family background by using unique Chinese twins data in a within-twin-pair fixed-effects model. We also use the instrumental variable fixed-effects method to correct the measurement error bias. The results are robust after we consider the various measures of income and wealth, the potential biases of within-twin-pair estimates, and the possibility of reverse causality. We find that income has a large positive effect on happiness: Beyond the effect of genes and family background, the pattern that the rich are happier than the poor is partly driven by the higher income of the former per se. We further examine the cross effect of the income of twin siblings and find evidence that twins have a preference of inequality aversion towards their siblings. Our findings help us understand the inequality of subjective well-being in the context of economic development and transition, and present important implications for China and for other fast-growing and highly unequal countries.  
  【演讲人简要简介】  
  叶茂亮，汉青经济与金融高级研究院助理教授，2012年博士毕业于哈佛大学肯尼迪政府学院，主要研究领域为实验与行为经济学，公共经济学，政治经济学，劳动经济学，发展经济学。  
 

中国人民大学经济学院

        2014年11月18日