Economic Shocks and Subjective Well-Being : Evidence from a Quasi-Experiment

This article examines how economic shocks affect individual well-being in developing countries. Using the case of a sudden and unanticipated currency devaluation in Botswana as a quasi-experiment, we examine how this monetary shock affects individuals’ evaluations of well-being. We do so by using...

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Main Authors:	Hariri, Jacob Gerner, Bjørnskov, Christian, Justesen, Mogens K.
Format:	Journal Article
Language:	en_US
Published:	Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the World Bank 2017
Subjects:	CURRENCY DEVALUATION MONETARY SHOCKS MACROECONOMIC SHOCKS WELL-BEING
Online Access:	http://hdl.handle.net/10986/27692

id	okr-10986-27692
recordtype	oai_dc
spelling	okr-10986-276922021-05-25T10:54:42Z Economic Shocks and Subjective Well-Being : Evidence from a Quasi-Experiment Hariri, Jacob Gerner Bjørnskov, Christian Justesen, Mogens K. CURRENCY DEVALUATION MONETARY SHOCKS MACROECONOMIC SHOCKS WELL-BEING This article examines how economic shocks affect individual well-being in developing countries. Using the case of a sudden and unanticipated currency devaluation in Botswana as a quasi-experiment, we examine how this monetary shock affects individuals’ evaluations of well-being. We do so by using microlevel survey data, which— incidentally—were collected in the days surrounding the devaluation. The chance occurrence of the devaluation during the time of the survey enables us to use pretreatment respondents, surveyed before the devaluation, as approximate counterfactuals for post-treatment respondents, surveyed after the devaluation. Our estimates show that the devaluation had a large and significantly negative effect on individuals’ evaluations of subjective well-being. These results suggest that macroeconomic shocks, such as unanticipated currency devaluations, may have significant short-term costs in the form of reductions in people’s sense of well-being. 2017-08-09T20:39:08Z 2017-08-09T20:39:08Z 2016-01 Journal Article World Bank Economic Review 1564-698X http://hdl.handle.net/10986/27692 en_US CC BY-NC-ND 3.0 IGO http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/igo World Bank Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the World Bank Publications & Research :: Journal Article Publications & Research Africa Botswana
repository_type	Digital Repository
institution_category	Foreign Institution
institution	Digital Repositories
building	World Bank Open Knowledge Repository
collection	World Bank
language	en_US
topic	CURRENCY DEVALUATION MONETARY SHOCKS MACROECONOMIC SHOCKS WELL-BEING
spellingShingle	CURRENCY DEVALUATION MONETARY SHOCKS MACROECONOMIC SHOCKS WELL-BEING Hariri, Jacob Gerner Bjørnskov, Christian Justesen, Mogens K. Economic Shocks and Subjective Well-Being : Evidence from a Quasi-Experiment
geographic_facet	Africa Botswana
description	This article examines how economic shocks affect individual well-being in developing countries. Using the case of a sudden and unanticipated currency devaluation in Botswana as a quasi-experiment, we examine how this monetary shock affects individuals’ evaluations of well-being. We do so by using microlevel survey data, which— incidentally—were collected in the days surrounding the devaluation. The chance occurrence of the devaluation during the time of the survey enables us to use pretreatment respondents, surveyed before the devaluation, as approximate counterfactuals for post-treatment respondents, surveyed after the devaluation. Our estimates show that the devaluation had a large and significantly negative effect on individuals’ evaluations of subjective well-being. These results suggest that macroeconomic shocks, such as unanticipated currency devaluations, may have significant short-term costs in the form of reductions in people’s sense of well-being.
format	Journal Article
author	Hariri, Jacob Gerner Bjørnskov, Christian Justesen, Mogens K.
author_facet	Hariri, Jacob Gerner Bjørnskov, Christian Justesen, Mogens K.
author_sort	Hariri, Jacob Gerner
title	Economic Shocks and Subjective Well-Being : Evidence from a Quasi-Experiment
title_short	Economic Shocks and Subjective Well-Being : Evidence from a Quasi-Experiment
title_full	Economic Shocks and Subjective Well-Being : Evidence from a Quasi-Experiment
title_fullStr	Economic Shocks and Subjective Well-Being : Evidence from a Quasi-Experiment
title_full_unstemmed	Economic Shocks and Subjective Well-Being : Evidence from a Quasi-Experiment
title_sort	economic shocks and subjective well-being : evidence from a quasi-experiment
publisher	Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the World Bank
publishDate	2017
url	http://hdl.handle.net/10986/27692
_version_	1764465909071609856

Economic Shocks and Subjective Well-Being : Evidence from a Quasi-Experiment

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