For some time, individuals in multiple contexts have been moving from rural to urban areas for economic reasons. In recent years, however, young people in Japan have been increasingly turning to rural areas to embrace a slower, lesshectic lifestyle. Despite this interesting development, researchers have thus far failed to identify determinants of residents’ well-being in rural and urban areas i...

Both within and across countries, most attention has been devoted to measuring inequality among individuals (and globally countries). Within countries, increasing evidence shows that inequalities among groups (HIs) are important for wellbeing. However, the global component of HIs are generally neglected. The paper argues that HIs at a global level may also be important for world stability and w...

Increasing human population interacts with local and global environments to deplete biodiversity and resources humans depend on, thus challenging societal values centered on growth and relying on technology to mitigate environmental stress. Although the need to address the environmental crisis, central to conservation science, generated greener versions of the growth paradigm, we need fundament...

The earlier essay came about at Ismail Serageldin's behest. He felt it would be a worthwhile exercise if I were to connect the ideas developed in Dasgupta (1993) with those in Putnam (1993), to see if the concept of social capital has potency for an understanding of the kinds of institution that are most likely to protect and promote human well-being in poor countries. The earlier essay and the...

This paper attempts to quantify the contribution of inequalities of opportunities and inequalities due to differences in effort to be in good health to overall health inequality in France. It examines three alternative specifications of legitimate and illegitimate inequalities drawing on Roemer, Barry and Swift‟s considerations of circumstances and effort. The issue at stake is how to treat the...

The Internet could change the lives of average citizens as much as did the telephone in the early part of the 20th century and television in the 1950s and 1960s. Researchers and social critics are debating whether the Internet is improving or harming participation in community life and social relationships. This research examined the social and psychological impact of the Internet on 169 people...

People not only care about outcomes, they also value the procedures which lead to the outcomes. Procedural utility is a potentially important source of human well-being. This paper aims at introducing the concept of procedural utility into economics, and argues that it should be incorporated more widely into economic theory and empirical research. Three building blocks of a concept of procedura...

Based on Berry’s (1997) acculturation framework on acculturation and adjustment, this study examined the link from acculturation experience (i.e., acculturation and enculturation) through coping strategies (i.e., social connectedness) to long-term outcomes (i.e., future subjective well-being SWB). Two hypotheses were proposed. First, it was expected that social connectedness in mainstream socie...

Although previous investigations have agreed that Chinese rural-to-urban migrants' socioeconomic status (SES) increases with their migration, the association between SES and subjective well-being is uncertain. To address this research gap, the present study proposed that the association between objective SES and subjective well-being is mediated by subjective SES. This model was tested with a s...

Social exclusion remains a serious development issue in the developing world and in South Asia in particular, hindering the life chances of millions of people. Although authorities often pay lip service to increasing the social participation of excluded groups, talk is rarely backed up by action. A more inclusive, sustainable development pathway is needed to promote the empowerment and wellbein...