Conference Objective

In the last decade, household debt has been rising, relative to income, in several industrialized countries. At the micro level, household surveys report an increase in the number of families who are unable to save, or who experience some other kind of financial or economic stress. This is sometime related to a decrease in self-reported happiness. This evidence may be at odds with growth in output, which has not decelerated and has actually increased in some countries. Consumption and saving patterns may also be related to changes in the distribution of income, which has been substantial, although with different characteristics across countries.
The aim of the conference is to collect state-of-the-art contributions on these issues, at the micro, macro and policy levels. Sections will be devoted to problems related to how we measure well-being, poverty and happiness, to differences between perceived and effective well-being, to how well-being is related to income growth and the distribution of income, to the role of economic policy.

Papers on these or related topics are welcome. Authors are free to submit more than one paper for different sessions. If you wish to organize a session (4 papers on the same topic) please contact the organizing committee.

Please get the Call for papers

The deadline for submitting an abstract has been extended to July 31, 2008

Contacts

Gennaro Zezza
Department of Economics - Cassino, Italy - zezza@unicas.it, and
Levy Economics Institute - U.S.

We gratefully acknowledge financial support from:

• Università di Cassino - Rettorato
• Università di Cassino - Dipartimento di Scienze Economiche
• Università di Cassino - Facoltà di Giurisprudenza
• Levy Economics Institute
• Banca d'Italia