Justin Wolfers

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Justin Wolfers

Justin Wolfers (* 1972 in Papua New Guinea ) is an American-Australian economist . He is Professor of Economics and Public Policy at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia .

Life

Wolfers received his B.Sc. in Economics from the University of Sydney in 1994 . In 2001 he received the degree Ph.D. in Economics from Harvard University . From 1995 to 2001 Wolfers worked as a labor economist at the Reserve Bank of Australia . From 2001 to 2004 he was a professor at Stanford University . Since 2005 he has been a professor at the Wharton School .

Wolfers is in a relationship with Betsey Stevenson and has a daughter with her.

job

Wolfers works in the research areas of Law and Economics , Labor Economics , Social Policy , Political Economy , Behavioral Economics and Macroeconomics .

Happiness research

Wolfers works in collaboration with Betsey Stevenson in happiness research . The two published several papers that received some media attention.

Relationship between income and happiness

Wolfers and Stevenson published a paper in 2008 in which they question the Easterlin paradox . They analyzed all data on happiness and income in comparisons between rich and poor within a society, in comparisons between poor and rich countries, and in intertemporal comparisons. It was shown that the relationship between subjective happiness and income is very similar for intranational, international and intertemporal comparisons. These results contradict those of Easterlin, whose paradox is based on the assumption that intranational comparisons mean greater differences in happiness than international or relative income is more important for satisfaction than absolute income. In countries such as Japan or Europe, subjective satisfaction increased along with average per capita income. Also, the increase in happiness was greater when the income growth was greater.

The publication drew several television and radio interviews as well as international press reactions.

Development of the distribution of happiness in the USA

In a paper published in 2008, Wolfers and Stevenson analyze the development of the distribution of happiness in the USA from 1972–2006. While subjective satisfaction remained unchanged on average, its inequality decreased considerably. The difference between black and white decreased by two thirds, and the difference between women and men completely disappeared. The relationship between education and satisfaction increased.

Paradox of decreasing women's satisfaction

In August 2009 the two published a paper describing a decline in subjective satisfaction among women in the United States and Western Europe over the past 35 years. This decline is seen both in absolute terms and in comparison with men and across different demographic groups. According to the surveys, women were happier than men in the 1970s, whereas men are happier than women today. Since the decline in women's satisfaction is offset by an improvement in many objective indicators (e.g. emancipation on the job market and at home), the authors speak of a paradox.

The publication met with strong media coverage, particularly in the USA and Great Britain, but also in many European countries.

scientific publications

  • “The Paradox of Declining Female Happiness” (with Betsey Stevenson), American Economic Journal: Economic Policy, 1 (2), 190-255, August 2009.
  • "Using Markets to Inform Policy: The Case of the Iraq War." (with Eric Zitzewitz), Economica, 76 (302), 225-250, April 2009.
  • “Happiness Inequality in the United States” (with Betsey Stevenson), Journal of Legal Studies, 37: s2, S33-S79, June 2008.
  • “Economic Growth and Happiness: Reassessing the Easterlin Paradox” (with Betsey Stevenson), Brookings Papers on Economic Activity, Spring 2008, 1-87 (editorial).
  • “The Promise of Prediction Markets” (with 21 co-authors), Science, 320 877, May 16, 2008.
  • “A Statistical Look at Roger Clemens' Pitching Career” (with Eric Bradlow, Shane Jensen, and Abraham Wyner), Chance, 21 (3), October 2008.
  • “Prediction Markets in Theory and Practice” (with Eric Zitzewitz), in Larry Blume and Steven Durlauf (eds): The New Palgrave Dictionary of Economics, 2nd ed (London: Palgrave), 2008.
  • “Theories of the Favorite-Longshot Bias: A Review and New Evidence” (with Erik Snowberg), in William Ziemba and Don Hausch (eds): Handbook of Sports and Lottery Markets, (Elsevier), 2008.
  • “Prediction Markets: From Politics to Business (and Back)” (with Erik Snowberg and Eric Zitzewitz), in William Ziemba and Don Hausch (eds): Handbook of Sports and Lottery Markets, (Elsevier), 2008.
  • “Marriage and Divorce: Changes and their Driving Forces” (with Betsey Stevenson), Journal of Economic Perspectives, 21 (2) 27-52, Spring 2007.
  • “Aggregate Shocks or Aggregate Information? Costly Information and Business Cycle Comovement ”(with Laura Veldkamp), Journal of Monetary Economics, 54 (S1) 37-55, September 2007.
  • “Party Influence in Congress and the Economy” (with Erik Snowberg and Eric Zitzewitz), Quarterly Journal of Political Science, 2 (3) 277-286, August 2007.
  • “Partisan Impacts on the Economy: Evidence from Prediction Markets and Close Elections” (with Erik Snowberg and Erik Zitzewitz), Quarterly Journal of Economics, 122 (2) 807-829, May 2007.
  • “Did Unilateral Divorce Raise Divorce Rates? A Reconciliation and New Results, ”American Economic Review, 96 (5) 1802-1820, December 2006.
  • “Competing Approaches to Forecasting Elections: Economic Models, Opinion Polling and Prediction Markets” (with Andrew Leigh), Economic Record, 82 (258) 325-337, September 2006.
  • “Happiness and the Human Development Index: Australia is Not a Paradox” (with Andrew Leigh), Australian Economic Review, 39 (2) 176-184, June 2006.
  • "Point Shaving: Corruption in NCAA Basketball," American Economic Review, 96 (2) 279-283, May 2006.
  • “Diagnosing Discrimination: Stock Returns and CEO Gender”, Journal of the European Economic Association, 4 (2/3) 531-541, May 2006.
  • “Bargaining in the Shadow of the Law: Divorce Laws and Family Distress” (with Betsey Stevenson), Quarterly Journal of Economics, 121 (1) 267-288, February 2006.
  • “Five Open Questions About Prediction Markets” (with Eric Zitzewitz), in Robert Hahn and Paul Tetlock (eds): Information Markets: A New Way of Making Decisions in the Public and Private Sectors, (Washington DC: AEI-Brookings Press), 2006.
  • “Uses and Abuses of Empirical Evidence in the Death Penalty Debate” (with John Donohue), Stanford Law Review, 58 (3) 791-845, December 2005. Reprinted in Economics of Criminal Law, Steven D. Levitt and Thomas Miles (eds ): (Edward Elgar), 2008. Also: The Role of Social Science in Law, Elizabeth Merz (ed) (Aldershot: Ashgate), 2008.
  • “Macroeconomic Derivatives: An Initial Analysis of Market-Based Macro Forecasts, Uncertainty and Risk” (with Refet Gürkaynak), NBER International Seminar on Macroeconomics, 2005. [Editorial]
  • “Information (In) Efficiency in Prediction markets” (with Erik Snowberg and Eric Zitzewitz), in Leighton Vaughan Williams (ed): Information Efficiency in Financial and Betting Markets, (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press), 2005.
  • “Prediction Markets” (with Eric Zitzewitz), Journal of Economic Perspectives, 18 (2) 107-126, Spring 2004. In: Futures Research Methodology version 3.0, Jerome C. Glenn and Theodore J. Gordon (eds): (The Millennium Project, World Federation of UN Associations), 2009.
  • "Prediction Markets: Does Money Matter?" (with Emile Servan-Schreiber, David Pennock and Brian Galebach), Electronic Markets, 14 (3) 243-251, September 2004.
  • “Disagreement About Inflation Expectations” (with Gregory Mankiw and Ricardo Reis), NBER Macroeconomics Annual, 18 209-248, 2003.
  • “Is Business Cycle Volatility Costly? Evidence from Surveys of Well-being, ”International Finance, 6 (1) 1-26, Spring 2003. [Editorial]
  • “Three Tools for Forecasting Federal Elections: Lessons from 2001” (with Andrew Leigh), Australian Journal of Political Science, 37 (2) 223-240, July 2002.
  • “The Role of Shocks and Institutions in the Rise of European Unemployment” (with Olivier Blanchard), Economic Journal, 116 (510) 1-33, March 2000.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Simon W. Bowmaker: Justin Wolfers (University of Pennsylvania) . Edward Elgar Publishing, 2012, ISBN 978-1-84980-847-7 ( elgaronline.com [accessed November 26, 2019]).
  2. ^ Economists in Love: Betsey Stevenson and Justin Wolfers. Spousonomics, March 10, 2011. ( Memento of the original from May 13, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.spousonomics.com
  3. ↑ Stevenson, B. & Wolfers, J. (2008): Economic Growth and Subjective Well-Being: Reassessing the Easterlin Paradox. Brookings Papers on Economic Activity, Spring 2008. ( Memento from April 22, 2008 in the Internet Archive )
  4. ↑ Reception in the media ( memento of the original dated November 25, 2009 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / bpp.wharton.upenn.edu
  5. ↑ Stevenson, B. & Wolfer, J. (2008): Happiness Inequality in the United States. Journal of Legal Studies, Vol. 37, June 2008, S33-79 ( Memento of the original from October 16, 2009 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / bpp.wharton.upenn.edu
  6. ↑ Stevenson, B. & Wolfers, J. (2009): The Paradox of Declining Female Happiness. American Economic Journal: Economic Policy. Vol. 1, No. 2, pp. 190-225. ( Memento of the original from October 16, 2009 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / bpp.wharton.upenn.edu
  7. ↑ Reception in the media ( memento of the original dated November 25, 2009 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / bpp.wharton.upenn.edu
  8. ↑ The misery of women. Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung, October 7, 2007
  9. ↑ Pretty sad. Süddeutsche Zeitung, October 11, 2009
personal data
SURNAME Wolfers, Justin
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Wolfers, Justin James Michael
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American-Australian economist
DATE OF BIRTH 1972
PLACE OF BIRTH Papua New Guinea