Essays on happiness, intergenerational transmission and the environment.

• Main Author: Ong, Qiyan.
• Other Authors: Quah Teong Ewe, Euston
• Format: Theses and Dissertations
• Language: English
• Published: 2013
• Subjects: DRNTU::Humanities
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/10356/53056
• Institution: Nanyang Technological University

An individual’s well-being is determined by a wide variety of factors, which ranges from individual choices, family influence, to the environment where they live. While it is impossible to study all the factors which affect an individual’s well-being in a thesis, this thesis provides an overview of how individual’s well-being can be influenced by these three dimensions through three self-contained essays. The first essay investigates whether choosing a job based on your risk preferences is important for long term job satisfaction. We did not find evidence which suggests that individuals whose jobs match their risk preferences have higher job satisfaction than individuals whose jobs do not match their risk preferences in the long run. The second essay explores the extent of altruism within a family. Using self-reported life happiness and life satisfaction, we found that mutual altruism exists between mother and child, but not between father and child. These findings are robust to the measure of self-reported well-being. The third essay discusses public perception of the importance of government spending on environment compared to education and transport on public well-being. Through a paired comparison survey conducted in Singapore and Bangkok, we found that individuals with high personal income are more likely to prefer public spending on the environment compared to education if they are residing in a developed city with mature education system. Further, we found that while public preferences in Bangkok are consistent with government priorities in budget allocation, Singapore residents appear to prefer more spending on environment than education than the current budget allocation.