Adaptive Preferences and Capabilities: Some Preliminary Conceptual Explorations

The Capability Approach (CA) as developed by Amartya Sen and Martha Nussbaum, has in part been a response to the problem of adaptive preferences. Their argument says that people might adapt to certain unfavorable circumstances and any self-evaluation in terms of satisfaction or happiness will in this case necessarily be distorted. To evaluate people's well-being in terms of functionings and capabilities guarantees a more objective picture of people's life. Next to this strong criticism on subjective measurements of well-being, we observe an increasing interest in Subjective Well-Being (SWB) or Happiness studies that are included in the broader field of Hedonic Psychology. In this paper, we thus revise the original critique of adaptive preferences and compare it with a more detailed analysis of adaptation as it is presented in hedonic psychology. It becomes clear that adaptation can be a positive as well as a negative phenomenon and that the adaptive preference critique had a particular narrow view on adaptation. However, this does not mean SWB-research is not any longer susceptible to this critique. An alternative way to assess people's subjective well-being, but which could be considered to be more in line with the CA, is proposed by Daniel Kahneman's Objective Happiness. These are all relatively new considerations, especially in economics. Therefore much more research needs to be done on the positive and negative aspects of adaptation to understand its consequences on well-being – especially when evaluated within the capability-space.     

浅析边沁的功利主义思想

边沁认为人类的一切行为动机以及合理性依据都根源于快乐或痛苦的免除,亦即利益或幸福,它不仅是个人的利益与幸福,而且是整个社会最大多数人的利益与幸福。他的功利主义不仅是从行为的动机强调苦乐对人的行为的支配作用,同时也是在行为效果(后果)意义上强调苦乐的支配作用,这实际上就是把苦乐看成在本质上就是恶与善的代名词。     

关注幸福指数 构建和谐社会

“幸福”是一个亘古而常新的话题,一直为人们所关注和追求。幸福指数是人们良好的主观感受和健康心理状态,也是良好的社会状态。科学地监测幸福指数,有助于建设社会主义和谐社会。     

公共服务对城市居民幸福感的影响

利用2005年和2015年中国社会综合调查(CGSS)数据,分析了公共服务对城市居民幸福感的影响。结果显示:公共服务对城市居民的幸福感有显著的正向影响,且其影响随时间的推移而增强。其中,社会保障类公共服务的正面作用相对更加明显。公共服务产生幸福增进效应的可能渠道包括机会均等性的提高、居民社会经济状况的改善,以及居民生活环境的优化。     

Happy workers value effort,sad workers value reward

Why do various workers exhibit dissimilar motivational levels and performance results within the same incentive systems? According to expectancy theory, this might result from distinct evaluations of whether those rewards deserve corresponding effort. We proposed and verified that affective states influence the valuation of effort and reward. We concluded that happy people are likely to exert efforts for future rewards and sad people tend to seek rewards without extra effort. Our finding can explain divergent employee reactions to the same incentive programme. Our results provide an explanation for the finding that happy workers are more productive than sad workers. These results have crucial implications for human resource management theory and practice.     

北京、杭州城市居民幸福感的差异分析

在我国国民的意识范畴里,北京和杭州都是令人心仪的理想居住城市,各大杂志、媒体也都对这两个城市的各个方面进行综合对比分析。现尝试运用社会指标法,来比较北京、杭州城市居民幸福感之间的差异。     

闲暇如何影响经济增长?——幸福感与经济效率关系的理论研究与仿真模拟

文章以闲暇促进效用(幸福感)的提升为线索,以闲暇对经济效率的积极作用为基础,构建内生增长模型展开分析。结果显示,长期增长率由闲暇的跨期替代弹性和边际效率增长率决定。前者表征闲暇对生产是替代的还是互补的,后者代表闲暇对效率的动态作用。文章还对此结论做了数值仿真,结果显示,当闲暇对效率的作用为负时,如果其他条件不变,经济最终收敛或出现衰退。文章最后在对不同情形下闲暇对内生增长的作用进行总结和分析的基础上,提出努力推动国民的闲暇活动具有积极健康的内涵,有利于提高经济效率和幸福感,进而促进经济的持续增长。