Measurement of Relative Welfare Poverty and Its Impact on Happiness in China: Evidence from CGSS

Abstract：    

Poverty has traditionally been measured in terms of individual or household income but it is now widely recognized that poverty measurement should account for non-income factors. Over the past two decades, increased attention has been directed towards multidimensional aspects of poverty and their policy implications. However, few studies have analyzed relative multidimensional poverty, especially in China. Moreover, the relationship between relative welfare poverty and happiness has been rarely studied, particularly given that the decline of poverty seemed not bringing a significant increase in happiness in China. This is notable since improving the population’s subjective well-being is an important goal for sustainable economic development of a nation. Based on micro data from China General Social Survey (CGSS), this paper firstly proposes a welfare approach to estimate the relative multidimensional poverty and then tackle the relationship between relative welfare poverty and individual happiness. Our results show that 1) relative welfare poverty has not declined significantly and 2) there is a significantly happiness-reducing effect of relative welfare poverty.

Speaker Bio：   

汪晨，荷兰莱顿大学经济学博士，上海财经大学财经研究所、城市与区域科学学院副教授，上海财经大学团委兼职副书记，兼任荷兰莱顿大学经济系Research Fellow、上海市杨浦区青年联合会常委。在《管理世界》、《中国工业经济》、《The World Economy》、《Cambridge Journal of Economics》、《China Economic Review》、《Journal of Economic Surveys》、《Journal of Social Policy》等国内外权威期刊上发表论文多篇，部分成果被翻译为法语、西班牙语及荷兰语出版，参编联合国人居署等单位联合编撰的《上海手册》（中、英文版）。主持国家自然科学基金青年及面上项目，主持联合国及亚洲开发银行咨询项目。获得国际收入分配研究的权威机构——卢森堡收入研究中心颁发的Aldi Hagenaars Memorial Award等多项学术奖励，入选上海市“浦江人才计划”，并获得上海市五四青年奖章（个人）。