The Happy Farmer: Self-Employment and Subjective Well-Being in Rural Vietnam

Thomas Markussen; Maria Fibæk; Finn Tarp; Nguyen Do Anh Tuan

doi:10.1007/s10902-017-9899-1

The Happy Farmer: Self-Employment and Subjective Well-Being in Rural Vietnam

Thomas Markussen, Maria Fibæk, Finn Tarp, Nguyen Do Anh Tuan

70 Downloads (Pure)

Abstract

Using a unique survey data set this paper documents a positive effect of self-employment in farming on subjective well-being. This direct effect is only partly offset by negative, indirect effects working through income and other variables. These findings are interpreted as effects of self-employment in farming on perceived autonomy, competence and relatedness. The results suggest that economic transformation is associated with a psychological cost, which may contribute to explaining earnings gaps between sectors and types of employment. We also investigate other determinants of happiness, and for example find strong positive effects of own income and strong negative effects of neighbors’ income, suggesting the importance of relative rather than absolute levels of income.

Original language	English
Journal	Journal of Happiness Studies
Volume	19
Issue number	6
Pages (from-to)	1613-36
ISSN	1389-4978
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1007/s10902-017-9899-1
Publication status	Published - 2017

Keywords

Faculty of Social Sciences
Happiness
Self-employment
Wage work
Agriculture
Vietnam

UN SDGs

This output contributes to the following UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

Access to Document

10.1007/s10902-017-9899-1

10.1007%2Fs10902-017-9858-xFinal published version, 650 KBLicence: Unspecified

https://ideas.repec.org/a/spr/jhappi/v19y2018i6d10.1007_s10902-017-9858-x.html

Cite this

@article{11235046a2704ce49df0202512a08f38,

title = "The Happy Farmer: Self-Employment and Subjective Well-Being in Rural Vietnam",

abstract = "Using a unique survey data set this paper documents a positive effect of self-employment in farming on subjective well-being. This direct effect is only partly offset by negative, indirect effects working through income and other variables. These findings are interpreted as effects of self-employment in farming on perceived autonomy, competence and relatedness. The results suggest that economic transformation is associated with a psychological cost, which may contribute to explaining earnings gaps between sectors and types of employment. We also investigate other determinants of happiness, and for example find strong positive effects of own income and strong negative effects of neighbors{\textquoteright} income, suggesting the importance of relative rather than absolute levels of income.",

keywords = "Faculty of Social Sciences, Happiness, Self-employment, Wage work, Agriculture, Vietnam",

author = "Thomas Markussen and Maria Fib{\ae}k and Finn Tarp and Tuan, {Nguyen Do Anh}",

year = "2017",

doi = "10.1007/s10902-017-9899-1",

language = "English",

volume = "19",

pages = "1613--36",

journal = "Journal of Happiness Studies",

issn = "1389-4978",

publisher = "Springer",

number = "6",

}

TY - JOUR

T1 - The Happy Farmer

T2 - Self-Employment and Subjective Well-Being in Rural Vietnam

AU - Markussen, Thomas

AU - Fibæk, Maria

AU - Tarp, Finn

AU - Tuan, Nguyen Do Anh

PY - 2017

Y1 - 2017

N2 - Using a unique survey data set this paper documents a positive effect of self-employment in farming on subjective well-being. This direct effect is only partly offset by negative, indirect effects working through income and other variables. These findings are interpreted as effects of self-employment in farming on perceived autonomy, competence and relatedness. The results suggest that economic transformation is associated with a psychological cost, which may contribute to explaining earnings gaps between sectors and types of employment. We also investigate other determinants of happiness, and for example find strong positive effects of own income and strong negative effects of neighbors’ income, suggesting the importance of relative rather than absolute levels of income.

AB - Using a unique survey data set this paper documents a positive effect of self-employment in farming on subjective well-being. This direct effect is only partly offset by negative, indirect effects working through income and other variables. These findings are interpreted as effects of self-employment in farming on perceived autonomy, competence and relatedness. The results suggest that economic transformation is associated with a psychological cost, which may contribute to explaining earnings gaps between sectors and types of employment. We also investigate other determinants of happiness, and for example find strong positive effects of own income and strong negative effects of neighbors’ income, suggesting the importance of relative rather than absolute levels of income.

KW - Faculty of Social Sciences

KW - Happiness

KW - Self-employment

KW - Wage work

KW - Agriculture

KW - Vietnam

U2 - 10.1007/s10902-017-9899-1

DO - 10.1007/s10902-017-9899-1

M3 - Journal article

SN - 1389-4978

VL - 19

SP - 1613

EP - 1636

JO - Journal of Happiness Studies

JF - Journal of Happiness Studies

IS - 6

ER -

The Happy Farmer: Self-Employment and Subjective Well-Being in Rural Vietnam

Abstract

Keywords

UN SDGs

Access to Document

Fingerprint

Cite this