International Social Well-Being Consortium Conference held in Seoul, Korea in 2018.

1. 1
Is Well-being
Equal or Unequal?:
Causes of Happiness
in Asian Societies
June 29, 2018 SWB Seoul
Jun Kobayashi (Seikei U)
Dolgion Aldar (IRIM)
1

2. 2
How happy? Why?

3. 3
Research question
 Well-being Inequality in Asia?
Different or similar Mechanisms?
Compare country groups of
East/Southeast
RQ

4. 4
Literature
Layard (2005)’s big seven:
Family, income, employment,
community, health, freedom,
philosophy of life
Still, no guarantee in Asia

5. 5
Hypos
 Different groups  different
levels of happiness
 Different groups  different
mechanisms
Mechanism
East/SE
level,
inequality
1
2
H1
H2

6. 6
Introduction
Methods
Results
Conclusion

7. 7
Data
International Comparative Survey on
Lifestyle and Values (7 countries)
Measuring Subjective Well-being-
2016 (MN)
Resample JP, KR, TW to 1,200 each
N=8,669
7

8. 8
Dependent: Cantril’s ladder

9. 9
Independent
Male, Age, Married/Widowed/
Divorced, No. of household
Years of edu, Employment,
Household Income

10. 10
Introduction
Methods
Results
Conclusion

11. 11
Answers by Country
Mostly single-peaked
SE... Higher

12. 12
Mean happiness by Country
SE... happier (p<.001)
SE... more equal (p<.001)

13. 13
Regression (N=8,669)
E SE
JP KR TW MN PH IN VN TH
Male †nega * *nega *nega †nega
Age *** *nega
Married *** *** *** †nega
Widowed/
Divorced
** † **nega †nega ***nega
#Household
Edu ** *** * * †nega **
Employed † * †nega *
Income *** *** ** ** *** *** †
R2
0.11 0.13 0.05 0.07 0.04 0.05 0.04 0.03

14. 14
Therefore
Country groups matter
East... Common effects of Family,
Income, highly explained
Rewarding?
SE... No shared mechanism
Flat? Especially VN, TH

15. 15
Robustness
No change if general happiness,
satisfaction, health added as x

16. 16
Introduction
Methods
Results
Conclusion

17. 17
Summary
 Supported. SE... happy, equal
 Supported. East.. shared
mechanism w/ clear drives, explained
SE... diverse mechanisms
SE
Unhappy, Unequal
Shared
H1
H2
East
Happy, Equal
Diverse

18. 18
Interviews 1, JP
Female, 20s, service worker

19. 19
Interviews 2, IN
Male, 60s, ex-public officer

20. 20
Conclusion
Country groups matter
Answer to : Well-being gaps b/w
East and SE Asia
Different levels, drives, mechanisms
East.. Similar siblings
SE... Diverse friends
RQ

21. 21
Next steps
To become inclusive society, which?
East... “Well-being unequal” but
Rewarding
SE... “Well-being equal” but Flat

22. 22
감사합니다!
(Gamsahamnida)
Thank you!

23. 23
Acknowledgements
This work was supported by the MEXT-Supported
Program for the Strategic Research Foundation at
Private Universities of Japan, 2014-2018 (S1491003).
“International Comparative Surveys on Lifestyle and
Values” were designed and conducted by the Center
for Social Well-being Studies, Institute for the
Development of Social Intelligence, Senshu University,
Japan, in collaboration with Social Well-being
Research Consortium in Asia
Measuring Subjective Well-being-2016 data were
collected by IRIM