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Risk aversion is an important argument to explain why individuals may dislike inequality. However, this relationship has not been empirically tested for large representative samples. Using a representative panel for Germany, we estimate this relationship by linking subjective well-being (a proxy for utility), inequality, and self-reported risk attitudes. The results confirm that risk aversion has a positive effect on dislike for inequality: more risk averse individuals are also more inequality averse. This relationship however is partly driven by other individual characteristics (gender, education, and income) that are correlated with risk attitudes. ; Ada Ferrer-i-Carbonell acknowledges financial support from the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness, through the Severo Ochoa Programme for Centres of Excellence in R&D (SEV-2015-0563), from the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation (ECO2014-59302-P), and the Catalan Government (01414-SGR). Xavier Ramos acknowledges financial support from the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness' project ECO2016-76506-C4-4-R), and the Catalan Government (SGR2014-1279). ; Peer reviewed

Uniform health care delivered by a mainstream public insurer – such as the National Health Service (NHS), seldom satisfies heterogeneous demands for care, and some unsatisfied share of the population either use private health care, or purchase private insurance (PHI). One potential mechanism to partially satisfy heterogeneous preferences for health care, and discourage the use of private health care, is regional health care decentralisation. We find robust estimates suggesting that the development of regional health services shifted both perceptions of, and preferences for, using the NHS, making it more likely individuals would use public health care and, consequently, reducing the uptake of PHI. These results are heterogeneous by income, education, and age groups; and are robust to placebo and other robustness and falsification checks.

Trabajo presentado en el 42 Simposio de la Asociación Española de Economía celebrado en Barcelona los días 14, 15 y 16 de diciembre de 2017 ; When health care is delivered by a mainstream public insurer such as the National Health Service (NHS), uniform health services pose as challenge to satisfy heterogeneous demands for care, and some share of the population chooses to partially 'opts out' by using, and supporting, private health care. We investigate the effect of the political decentralization of the NHS, which lead to the reallocation of political health care authority to regions, on both individual preferences for, and satisfaction with, public health care, alongside the actual uptake of private health insurance (PHI). We find robust evidence of shift in perceptions and preferences making more likely that individuals would use public health care and, a consistent reduction in the uptake of PHI for some subsamples, after decentralization. These results are heterogeneous by income and education groups and robust to placebo and other checks. ; Peer reviewed

Intro -- Contents -- Introduction -- What is Happiness? -- The Attitude of Mainstream Economics Toward Happiness -- Happiness: Methods of Analysis -- Question Modes -- Methods of Secondary Analysis -- Life Satisfaction, Happiness -- Domain Satisfactions -- Job Satisfaction -- Financial Satisfaction -- Health Satisfaction -- Cardinal or Ordinal? -- Aggregating Domain Satisfactions to Life Satisfaction -- Leyden School -- Reference Groups -- Memory, Anticipation and Adaptation -- Climate and Other External Effects -- Poverty -- Macro-economic Determinants of Happiness -- Inequality -- Effect of Inequality on Happiness -- An Index of Happiness Inequality -- Satisfaction and Vignettes -- The Significance of Happiness Economics for Normative Economics -- Concluding Observations, Research and Applications for the Future -- References.

Uniform health care delivered by a mainstream public insurer - such as the National Health Service (NHS), seldom satisfies heterogeneous demands for care, and some unsatisfied share of the population either use private health care, or purchase private insurance (PHI). One potential mechanism to partially satisfy heterogeneous preferences for health care, and discourage the use of private health care, is regional health care decentralisation. We find robust estimates suggesting that the development of regional health services shifted both perceptions of, and preferences for, using the NHS, making it more likely individuals would use public health care and, consequently, reducing the uptake of PHI. These results are heterogeneous by income, education, and age groups; and are robust to placebo and other robustness and falsification checks.