Singaporeans’ preferences in public expenditures: exploratory happiness and well-being study
Happiness, though being the ultimate life goal for many people, is not easily defined or measured due to individual preferences. To discern what brings happiness to Singaporeans, this study aims to comprehend factors that affect their happiness from a public expenditure point of view, as most lit...
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| Main Authors: | , , |
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| 其他作者: | |
| 格式: | Final Year Project |
| 語言: | English |
| 出版: |
2016
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| 主題: | |
| 在線閱讀: | http://hdl.handle.net/10356/66423 |
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| 總結: | Happiness, though being the ultimate life goal for many people, is not easily defined or
measured due to individual preferences. To discern what brings happiness to Singaporeans,
this study aims to comprehend factors that affect their happiness from a public expenditure
point of view, as most literatures focus solely on private consumption effects on happiness.
After identifying the factors, the study proceeded to rank them according to public
preferences. The method utilised in the study is the pairwise comparison approach using
Dunn Rankin’s variance stable rank method - administered using MATLAB - which detects
and controls for intransitivity and inconsistency. A total of 160 random participants were
engaged for the preliminary pilot survey, and another group of 180 random participants
took part in the MATLAB program. Contrary to expectations, the preliminary results
indicate that transportation and environment are not considered top public expenditure
factors that contribute to Singaporeans’ happiness. Instead, the top 6 factors are CPF,
Security, Healthcare, Education, Family-focused Policy and Housing. As a result of the
pairwise comparison, the study determines that Singapore government should focus on
increasing public expenditures in the areas of Security and CPF, which will effectively
increase citizens’ happiness. While 10-year average growth rates of Healthcare and
Education expenditures reflect Singaporeans’ preferences, the results suggest that
Singapore government should reduce or limit the growth of public expenditures on Housing
and Family-focused policy. Instead, the funds for Housing and Family-focused policy could
be channelled to higher valued areas of government expenditures. With this study, the
government is equipped with a viable tool to have a better understanding on the analysis
and implementation of future public policies - from the perspective of citizens’ happiness. |
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