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29
cultures, and the same language and political system, so the difference should not be as
great as it might be across other regions.
In regard to the latter concern that self-reported health and health satisfaction
measure the same thing, Deaton (2008) uses cross-country data to show that health
satisfaction does not correlate well with life expectancy, infant mortality or prevalence of
HIV/AIDS. He concludes that health satisfaction should not be used as an indicator of
health. Since self-reported health does correlate with mortality and life expectancy and
health satisfaction does not, these two variables are different measures.
Easterlin (2005b) uses the General Social Survey to evaluate how changes in self-reported
health affect health satisfaction. He finds that health satisfaction changes in the
same direction as actual health, but that it changes by little more than half of what one
might expect. He attributes this finding to the fact that health standards change with
actual health. The effect of the deterioration of health on health satisfaction is therefore
mitigated by a change in standards. Easterlin’s work provides additional evidence that
health satisfaction and self-reported health are distinct measures.
Furthermore, in a simple cross-sectional ordinary least squares (OLS) regression
of self-reported health on health satisfaction for the respondents included in this study,
the R-squared is 0.59.6 This indicates that self-reported health does not explain 40 percent
of the variation in health satisfaction. Mean self-reported health and mean health
satisfaction are plotted in Figures 1.10 and 1.11. These graphs confirm that the trends in
health and health satisfaction are similar, but that there are portions of the trends that do
6 The coefficient on self-reported health is 1.81 and statistically significant at 1%. I reject the null
hypothesis that it is equal to 2 and that it is equal to 1.
29
Object Description
| Title | Essays on health and well-being |
| Author | Zweig, Jacqueline Smith |
| Author email | smith2@usc.edu; jackiesmith04@yahoo.com |
| Degree | Doctor of Philosophy |
| Document type | Dissertation |
| Degree program | Economics |
| School | College of Letters, Arts and Sciences |
| Date defended/completed | 2011-03-23 |
| Date submitted | 2011 |
| Restricted until | Restricted until 26 Apr. 2012. |
| Date published | 2012-04-26 |
| Advisor (committee chair) |
Easterlin, Richard A. Ham, John C. |
| Advisor (committee member) | Melguizo, Tatiana |
| Abstract | This dissertation is comprised of three chapters that use microeconometric techniques to investigate the factors that affect people’s well-being. In the first two chapters, well-being is defined as life satisfaction or health satisfaction. The first chapter explores how the movement from socialism to capitalism affected the life satisfaction and health satisfaction of East Germans relative to West Germans after reunification. The second chapter examines whether women are happier, less happy, or equally happy as men in countries at various stages of development. The third chapter examines whether pollution affects the academic performance of school children; their academic performance and achievements will have important implications for their future well-being. |
| Keyword | happiness; well-being |
| Geographic subject | Germany |
| Geographic subject (state) | California |
| Geographic subject (country) | USA |
| Coverage date | 1990/2010; 2002/2008 |
| Language | English |
| Part of collection | University of Southern California dissertations and theses |
| Publisher (of the original version) | University of Southern California |
| Place of publication (of the original version) | Los Angeles, California |
| Publisher (of the digital version) | University of Southern California. Libraries |
| Provenance | Electronically uploaded by the author |
| Type | texts |
| Legacy record ID | usctheses-m3782 |
| Contributing entity | University of Southern California |
| Rights | Zweig, Jacqueline Smith |
| Repository name | Libraries, University of Southern California |
| Repository address | Los Angeles, California |
| Repository email | cisadmin@lib.usc.edu |
| Filename | etd-Zweig-4500 |
| Archival file | uscthesesreloadpub_Volume23/etd-Zweig-4500.pdf |
Description
| Title | Page 38 |
| Contributing entity | University of Southern California |
| Repository email | cisadmin@lib.usc.edu |
| Full text | 29 cultures, and the same language and political system, so the difference should not be as great as it might be across other regions. In regard to the latter concern that self-reported health and health satisfaction measure the same thing, Deaton (2008) uses cross-country data to show that health satisfaction does not correlate well with life expectancy, infant mortality or prevalence of HIV/AIDS. He concludes that health satisfaction should not be used as an indicator of health. Since self-reported health does correlate with mortality and life expectancy and health satisfaction does not, these two variables are different measures. Easterlin (2005b) uses the General Social Survey to evaluate how changes in self-reported health affect health satisfaction. He finds that health satisfaction changes in the same direction as actual health, but that it changes by little more than half of what one might expect. He attributes this finding to the fact that health standards change with actual health. The effect of the deterioration of health on health satisfaction is therefore mitigated by a change in standards. Easterlin’s work provides additional evidence that health satisfaction and self-reported health are distinct measures. Furthermore, in a simple cross-sectional ordinary least squares (OLS) regression of self-reported health on health satisfaction for the respondents included in this study, the R-squared is 0.59.6 This indicates that self-reported health does not explain 40 percent of the variation in health satisfaction. Mean self-reported health and mean health satisfaction are plotted in Figures 1.10 and 1.11. These graphs confirm that the trends in health and health satisfaction are similar, but that there are portions of the trends that do 6 The coefficient on self-reported health is 1.81 and statistically significant at 1%. I reject the null hypothesis that it is equal to 2 and that it is equal to 1. 29 |
