Well-Being and Social Capital: Welfare, Work and Community Presented by: John Helliwell UBC and Bank of Canada St John’s November 16,2003

Subjective Well-Being Life Satisfaction From the WVS

Outline Employment and welfare: local, national and global Lessons thus far: SSP worked, engagement trumps dollars Social capital and well-being Next steps: implement, experiment, broaden, monitor

Effects of Age on Well-Being OECD above Developing below

What’s Social Capital? “..networks, together with shared norms, values, and understandings that facilitate co-operation within and among groups” (OECD 2001) Created among and in: Families Community Groups and Churches Neighbourhoods Workplaces and Schools

Types of Social Capital Bonding, among those with much in common Bridging, connecting those with, at least initially, less in common The two types tend to be found together, i.e. families, friends and community links go together. But sometimes one type is used more if another is lacking

Engagement… Improves health Improves subjective well-being Generate benefits for others

good workplaces help… Along with other types of social capital: To improve measures of subjective well- being To improve subjective measures of health To reduce illness and death rates, including suicides

Implications for Welfare to Work Cost/Benefit analysis should include well-being Well-being effects of unemployment very large Hence need to evaluate net employment effects Monitor social capital and well-being, on jobs too Include engagement and training in experiments Examine differential impacts on groups at risk

Effects of Family Status on Subjective Well-Being

Income, Health, and Unemployment Effects on Well-being

Effects of Relative Income on Well-Being OECD below Developing above

Social Capital Individual Level Effects

Social Capital National Level Effects

Suicide, Life Satisfaction and Social Capital Suicide suicide SWB suicide SWB suim suif Membership -6.08 0.51 -2.82 0.34 -4.02 -1.91 [2.45] [2.80] [1.26] [2.15] [1.15] [1.46] Trust -16.47 1.83 -18.25 1.93 -33.84 -4.45 [2.42] [4.01] [2.87] [4.95] [3.36] [1.16] God -22.82 1.6 -16.87 1.28 -20.02 -14.27 [5.35] [5.01] [4.78] [3.74] [3.39] [6.88] Divorce 4.29 -0.19 3.44 -0.14 6.29 0.97 [5.37] [4.01] [5.20] [3.39] [5.48] [2.91] Unemp rate 0.11 -0.03 0.07 -0.03 0.15 0 [0.58] [3.23] [0.39] [2.86] [0.55] [0.02] Govt Quality -1.66 0.82 -2.9 0.88 -6.13 -0.22 [1.71] [10.31] [2.79] [12.81] [3.71] [0.34] Latitude 0.3 -0.02 0.64 0 [3.88] [2.24] [4.85] [0.10] R-squared 0.6 0.81 0.65 0.83 0.69 0.53