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Full-Text Articles in Social and Behavioral Sciences
Does Health Insurance Make People Happier? Evidence From Massachusetts’ Healthcare Reform, Seonghoon Kim, Kanghyock Koh
Does Health Insurance Make People Happier? Evidence From Massachusetts’ Healthcare Reform, Seonghoon Kim, Kanghyock Koh
Research Collection School Of Economics
We study the effects of Massachusetts' healthcare reform on individuals' subjective well-being. Using data from the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System, we find that the reform significantly improved Massachusetts residents' overall life-satisfaction. This result is robust to various sensitivity checks and a falsification test. We also find that the reform improved mental health. An additional analysis on the Tennessee healthcare reform supports our findings' external validity. Using the reform as an instrument for health insurance coverage, we estimate its large impact on overall life-satisfaction. Our results provide novel evidence on the psychological consequences of Massachusetts' healthcare reform.
Did The Massachusetts Healthcare Reform Make People Happier?, Seonghoon Kim, Kanghyock Koh
Did The Massachusetts Healthcare Reform Make People Happier?, Seonghoon Kim, Kanghyock Koh
Research Collection School Of Economics
We study the effects of Massachusetts’ healthcare reform on individuals’ subjective well-being. Using data from the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System, we find that the reform significantly improved Massachusetts residents’ overall life-satisfaction. This result is robust to various sensitivity checks and falsification tests. We find consistent evidence from other healthcare reforms such as the 2014 Affordable Care Act Medicaid expansion and the 2005 Tennessee Medicaid disenrollment, supporting our findings’ external validity. Our results provide novel evidence on the psychological consequences of recent healthcare reforms expanding health insurance coverage to the uninsured.
Using Multiple Methods To More Fully Understand Causal Relations: Positive Affect Enhances Social Relationships, Shannon Moore, Ed Diener, Kenneth Tan
Using Multiple Methods To More Fully Understand Causal Relations: Positive Affect Enhances Social Relationships, Shannon Moore, Ed Diener, Kenneth Tan
Research Collection School of Social Sciences
We review research indicating that higher levels of positive affect help produce better social relationships for that person and those around him or her. By better relationships we mean those that are experienced as more pleasant and less aversive, are closer and more supportive, and are long-lasting. We review longitudinal, experimental, experience-sampling, cross-cultural, and other types of evidence that suggest that not only do good relationships produce positive affect, but that positive affect can lead to them as well. We also focus on the mediators that create the association going from positive affect to sociability and high-quality relationships. Finally, we …
Income And Subjective Well-Being: Evidence From Singapore's First National Non-Contributory Pension, Yanying Chen, Yi Jin Tan
Income And Subjective Well-Being: Evidence From Singapore's First National Non-Contributory Pension, Yanying Chen, Yi Jin Tan
Research Collection School Of Economics
We use a new monthly panel and a difference-in-differences strategy to study the effects of an exogenous permanent income shock on subjective well-being along previously unexplored dimensions. This permanent income shock is the introduction of Singapore’s first national non-contributory pension, the Silver Support Scheme. The pension improved the life satisfaction of recipients, and appeared to be driven by social, household income, and economic satisfaction. Consistent with the predictions of standard consumption-savings models, well-being improved when the shock was unanticipated (at announcement), but did not improve significantly further when the shock was anticipated (at disbursement). In addition, we find evidence that …