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September 18, 2012

[SSJ: 7721] [Date correction] CJG announcement -- September 27

From: Gregory W. NOBLE
Date: 2012/09/18

The Contemporary Japan Group at the Institute of Social
Science (ISS, or Shaken), University of Tokyo, welcomes
you to a lecture by

Hiroshi Ono, Associate Professor of Sociology, Texas
A&M University, on

Welfare states and the redistribution of happiness

Thursday, Thursday, September 27 from 6:30-8:00 p.m. at
Akamon Sogo Kenkyuto Room 549, Institute of Social
Science, University of Tokyo, Hongo Campus, University
of Tokyo.

ABSTRACT
This seminar highlights recent developments in
international and comparative happiness, with
particular focus on work, marriage and family in Japan.
Our empirical study uses data from the 2002
International Social Survey Programme, with roughly
42,000 individuals nested within 29 countries, to
examine the determinants of happiness in a comparative
perspective. We hypothesize that welfare states
redistribute happiness among policy-targeted
demographic groups in these countries. The
redistributive properties of the welfare states
generate an alternate form of "happiness inequality" in
which winners and losers are defined by marital status
and income. We apply multi-level modeling and focus on
public social expenditures (as percentage of GDP) as
proxy measures of state intervention at the
macro-level, and happiness as the specific measure of
welfare outcome at the micro-level.
We find that aggregate happiness is not greater in the
welfare states, but happiness closely reflects the
redistribution of resources in these countries.
Happiness is "transferred" from low-risk to high-risk
individuals. For example, women with small children
are significantly happier, but single persons are
significantly less happy in the welfare states. This
suggests that pro-family ideology of the welfare states
protects families from social risk and improves their
well-being at the cost of single persons. Further, we
find that the happiness gap between high versus
low-income earners is considerably smaller in the
welfare states, suggesting that happiness is
transferred from the privileged to the less privileged.

SPEAKER
Hiroshi Ono (Ph.D. in sociology, University of Chicago)
is Associate Professor of sociology at Texas A&M
University. He is currently a visiting fellow at the
University of Tokyo and Graduate Institute for Policy
Studies (GRIPS). He has extensive international
experience, having held professional and academic
positions in the U.S., Japan, and Sweden. Prior to his
current position, he was on the faculty at the
Stockholm School of Economics where he was awarded the
title of Docent (or second doctoral degree) in
Economics. His research integrates sociology and
microeconomics to study the causes and consequences of
stratification and inequality, with applications in the
areas of gender, family, education, and labor markets.
His current work looks at patterns of career mobility
in the Japanese labor market, and determinants of
happiness in an international context. His papers have
appeared in the American Sociological Review, Economics
of Education Review, International Journal of Human
Resources Management, Journal of the Japanese and
International Economies, Social Forces, and Social
Science Quarterly, among others. (for more information
please visit
http://sociweb.tamu.edu/faculty.php?faculty_id=54 )

Contemporary Japan Group:
The ISS Contemporary Japan Group provides
English-speaking residents of the Tokyo area with an
opportunity to hear cutting-edge research in social
science and related policy issues, as well as a venue
for researchers and professionals in or visiting Tokyo
to present and receive knowledgeable feedback on their
latest research projects. Admission is free and advance
registration is not required. Everyone is welcome.

For more information, please visit our website:
http://web.iss.u-tokyo.ac.jp/cjg/
or contact
Gregory W. NOBLE (noble[at]iss.u-tokyo.ac.jp)
ISHIDA Hiroshi (ishida[at]iss.u-tokyo.ac.jp)

Approved by ssjmod at 11:23 AM