Justin Wolfers - Faculty Research in Knowledge@Wharton

'The Happiness Manifesto': Can a Country Be as Happy as a Duck in Water?

Tue, 26 Jul 2011 10:34:27 EST

The United Kingdom's Prime Minister David Cameron plans to create a national well-being index. French President Nicolas Sarkozy has formed a team that includes two Nobel Prize-winning economists to come up with a system for measuring the nation's well-being. In China, happiness indexes have become so popular that cities there compete for the title of China's happiest city. Many now argue that purely economic measures of a country's progress -- such as gross national product (GDP) -- fail to count many things people value highly, such as personal and community relationships or a healthy environment. To learn more about measuring happiness, Knowledge@Wharton spoke with Nic Marks, author of the e-book, The Happiness Manifesto: How Nations and People Can Nurture Well-Being.

Gross Domestic Happiness: What Is the Relationship between Money and Well-being?

Wed, 19 Jan 2011 16:05:35 EST

What exactly is the relationship between money and happiness? It's a difficult question to pin down, experts say. While more money may make us happier, other considerations -- such as whether you live in an economically advanced country and how you think about your time -- also play into the equation. An increasing number of economists, sociologists and psychologists are now working in the field, and most agree that there is a strong link between a country's level of economic development and the happiness of its people.

Adjusting to the 'New Normal': The Consequences of Long-term High Unemployment

Wed, 08 Dec 2010 16:38:32 EST

Hopes for an accelerated economic recovery in the United States were dealt a blow last week by a dismal jobs report for November -- including an unexpected rise in the unemployment rate. This news adds more fuel to the growing feeling among many economists that it will likely be several years before the jobless rate falls to what is considered a normal level. The continued atmosphere of uncertainty, experts say, has potential long-term consequences for businesses and employees alike.

Post-Recession America: Falling Incomes, Rising Cohabitation, Fewer Babies

Tue, 23 Nov 2010 15:27:40 EST

Although the Great Recession officially ended in mid-2009 in the U.S., the repercussions on American lifestyles could be felt for a long while, suggests the U.S. Census Bureau's American Community Survey published in late September. Amid rising poverty rates and a number of other demographic changes, the survey results raise questions about how these trends are affecting today's ongoing economic recovery, say Wharton and other experts.

Betting on Future Movie Receipts: Beware the Hollywood Lemons

Wed, 28 Apr 2010 14:56:07 EST

Wouldn't it be great if you could invest in a new film that you thought might be a real blockbuster? Now maybe you can. On Tuesday, April 20, the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission approved a movies futures exchange -- sponsored by Cantor Fitzgerald investment bank -- that will match buyers and sellers of future movie receipts. But given the way some futures exchanges work, how good an investment is this for individuals? In this personal finance column, Wharton professor Kent Smetters offers some answers.

Efficient Markets or Herd Mentality? The Future of Economic Forecasting

Wed, 11 Nov 2009 16:18:47 EST

Once on the academic fringes, behavioral economics has been gaining considerable ground over the past year. While not all economists, government policy makers and corporate financiers agree wholeheartedly with behavioral economists' assertion that markets are inefficient and irrational, it's difficult in the wake of the global financial meltdown to be too dismissive of it, according to some Wharton faculty members. It's likely, they say, that future regulations will be shaped in part by both behavioral economics and the efficient market theory, which has dominated government policymaking since the early 1980s.

The Use -- and Misuse -- of Statistics: How and Why Numbers Are So Easily Manipulated

Wed, 02 Apr 2008 17:52:07 EST

When a report prepared by former Senator George J. Mitchell indicated that Roger Clemens and others used illegal, performance-enhancing drugs, a marketing agency prepared a voluminous report that relied on statistics to make the case for Clemens' innocence. But an article written by four Wharton faculty -- Justin Wolfers, Shane Jensen, Abraham Wyner and Eric Bradlow -- questions the methodology used by the marketing agency, noting that the validity of any statistical analysis is only as good as its individual components. And these components, they add, can be easily misinterpreted.

Polling the Polling Experts: How Accurate and Useful Are Polls These Days?

Wed, 14 Nov 2007 15:20:43 EST

Turn on the Internet, pick up your telephone or cell phone, read a newspaper or watch television: No matter what the communication vehicle is, polls and the reporting of poll results are ubiquitous. Yet how accurate are polls? Can they be manipulated? How do the Internet and the proliferation of cell phone users affect both marketing and political polls? And which polls are the most reliable? Knowledge@Wharton interviewed the experts.

On the Fence: Are Illegal Immigrants Good or Bad for the U.S. Economy?

Wed, 13 Jun 2007 14:33:58 EST

Last week, the United States' first major immigration reform bill in two decades collapsed in the Senate. Buried in the ongoing debate was the potential economic impact of a measure that could change the composition of America's workforce in significant ways: By cracking down on illegal immigration, the legislation could constrict the future supply of low-skilled workers, while a move to skill-based visa evaluations could provide more workers for booming high-tech industries. Meanwhile, it isn't exactly clear what impact the country's 12 million illegal residents have on its economy. Experts from Wharton and elsewhere weigh in.

I Do's and Don'ts: How Changes in Marriage, Divorce and Childbirth Are Redefining the Workplace

Wed, 07 Mar 2007 14:51:20 EST

According to a new study by Wharton professors Betsey Stevenson and Justin Wolfers, marriage and divorce rates in the United States are both at historic lows. When Stevenson and Wolfers began to analyze the changing market forces behind these new statistics, one thing became clear: The same forces that play a role in marriage and divorce statistics -- namely birth control, partial closing of the gender wage gap, the rising age of first marriages and dramatic changes in home technologies -- have also had a significant impact on businesses and employees.

Heading for the Fast Track? New Studies Examine Who Gets Promoted and Why

Wed, 10 Aug 2005 15:55:55 EST

Even as two big labor unions decided this week to defect from the AFL-CIO, claiming that it had failed to stop declining union membership or push hard enough for labor reform, debate about the alchemy of promotion -- who gets it, when and why -- animated a recent conference at Wharton organized by the School's Center for Human Resources. Labor economists and human resource specialists attending the conference, entitled "Careers and Career Transitions: New Evidence for a New Economy," tackled a number of issues, including whether or not a "fast track" really exists, the effect of corporate restructurings on professional advancement and the likelihood of promotion for insiders vs. recent outside hires.

The Wi-Fi Debate: Should Cities Be in the Business of Broadband?

Wed, 01 Jun 2005 17:22:46 EST

The city of Philadelphia's grand experiment to blanket its 135 square miles with wireless high-speed Internet access is being closely watched by municipalities across the U.S. that are pursuing similar initiatives. While Philadelphia's project, which edged closer to reality with an announcement on April 7, is more than a year away from completion, it has sparked an intense debate over such questions as: Are broadband services better handled by the public or private sector? Can a wireless broadband network, commonly known as Wi-Fi, be used to help more low-income people gain online access? Should Internet access be viewed as city infrastructure, like telephone poles or city streets?

How Credible Are Polls? Is There a Better Way to Predict Outcomes in Politics and Business

Wed, 03 Nov 2004 16:54:35 EST

This election year's hard-fought presidential race has brought increasing focus on the credibility and methodology of polls - a focus that could have implications for politics, but also for business forecasting, according to Wharton faculty. With growing uncertainty about the value of polls, people are looking more closely at new ways to predict election outcomes - including the use of aggregate poll results, expert opinion surveys and betting markets. "My guess is that polls are the least accurate way of gauging an election," says Wharton marketing professor J. Scott Armstrong.