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Bureaucratic Rents and Life Satisfaction
Luechinger, Simon; Meier, Stephan; Stutzer, Alois - Institut für Volkswirtschaftslehre, … - 2006
rents. Those rents can involve higher wages, monetary and non-monetary fringe benefits (e.g. pensions and staffing), and …/or bribes. We propose a direct measure to capture the total of these rents: the difference in reported subjective well … extent of rents in the public bureaucracy. The extent of rents is determined by differences in institutional constraints and …
Persistent link: https://www.econbiz.de/10005628003
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Should We Maximize National Happiness?
Frey, Bruno S.; Stutzer, Alois - Institut für Volkswirtschaftslehre, … - 2006
Cross-disciplinary ‘happiness research’ has made big progress in the measurement of individual welfare. This development makes it tempting to pursue the old dream of maximizing aggregate happiness as a social welfare function. However, we postulate that the appropriate approach is not to...
Persistent link: https://www.econbiz.de/10005627967
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The Happiness Gains From Sorting and Matching in the Labor Market
Luechinger, Simon; Stutzer, Alois; winkelmann, Rainer - Institut für Volkswirtschaftslehre, … - 2006
Sorting of people on the labor market not only assures the most productive use of valuable skills but also generates individual utility gains if people experience an optimal match between job characteristics and their preferences. Based on individual data on reported satisfaction with life it is...
Persistent link: https://www.econbiz.de/10005585635
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Outcome, Process & Power in Direct Democracy
Frey, Bruno S.; Kucher, Marcel; Stutzer, Alois - Institut für Volkswirtschaftslehre, …
Based on survey data for Switzerland, new empirical findings on direct democracy are presented. In the first part, we show that, on average, public employees receive lower financial compensation under more direct democratic institutions. However, top bureaucrats are more constrained in direct...
Persistent link: https://www.econbiz.de/10005627951
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Happiness, Economy and Institutions
Frey, Bruno S.; Stutzer, Alois - Institut für Volkswirtschaftslehre, …
A cross-regional econometric analysis suggests that institutional factors in the form of direct democracy (via initiatives and referenda) and of federal structure (local autonomy) systematically and sizeably raise self-reported individual well-being. This positive effect can be attributed to...
Persistent link: https://www.econbiz.de/10005627842
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Beyond Outcomes: Measuring Procedural Utility
Frey, Bruno S.; Stutzer, Alois - Institut für Volkswirtschaftslehre, …
People not only obtain utility from actual outcomes but also from the conditions which lead to these outcomes. The paper proposes an economic concept of this notion of procedural utility. Preferences beyond outcome can be manifold. We distinguish procedural utility people get from institutions...
Persistent link: https://www.econbiz.de/10005627953
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Who Gains From Non-Collusive Corruption?
Foellmi, Reto; Oechslin, Manuel - Institut für Volkswirtschaftslehre, …
We explore the impact of non-collusive corruption on factor rewards and on the wealth distribution. We show that the … distributional consequences depend crucially on the degree of capital market imperfections. With perfect capital markets, corruption … very limited. In the empirical section, we provide cross-country evidence showing that a high level of corruption and a …
Persistent link: https://www.econbiz.de/10005760929
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Does watching TV make us happy?
Frey, Bruno S.; Benesch, Christine; Stutzer, Alois - Institut für Volkswirtschaftslehre, …
The paper studies a major human activity – that of watching TV - where many individuals have incomplete control over, and foresight into, their own behavior. As a consequence, they watch more TV than they consider optimal for themselves and their well-being is lower than what could be...
Persistent link: https://www.econbiz.de/10005627771
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Calculating Tragedy: Assessing the Costs of Terrorism
Frey, Bruno S.; Luechinger, Simon; Stutzer, Alois - Institut für Volkswirtschaftslehre, …
The trends and consequences of terrorist activities are often captured by counting the number of incidents and casualties. More recently, the effects of terrorist acts on various aspects of the economy have been analyzed. These costs are surveyed and put in perspective. As economic consequences...
Persistent link: https://www.econbiz.de/10005627796
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TV Channels, Self Control and Happiness
Benesch, Christine; Frey, Bruno S.; Stutzer, Alois - Institut für Volkswirtschaftslehre, … - 2006
In many countries, TV viewers have access to more and more TV channels. We study whether people can cope with this and watch the amount of TV they find optimal for themselves or whether they are prone to over-consumption. We find that heavy TV viewers do not benefit, but instead report lower...
Persistent link: https://www.econbiz.de/10005628009