Shams Khadija, Kadow Alexander
University of Glasgow, Glasgow, UK.
Department of Economics, Shaheed Benazir Bhutto Women University, Peshawar, Pakistan.
Appl Res Qual Life. 2023;18(1):93-113. doi: 10.1007/s11482-022-10114-3. Epub 2022 Nov 12.
This study contributes to the existing literature on happiness studies by analyzing the effects of COVID-19 pandemic on subjective well-being (SWB) in a developing country, focusing specifically on satisfaction with socio-economic status. Drawing on survey data for urban Pakistan from before and after the outbreak of COVID-19, we find that during the early days of the pandemic and the related social distancing and potential lockdowns, SWB declined, particularly among unemployed, married couples, males and older people. Unexpectedly, we also observed that households having a higher income suffered more from the pandemic in terms of satisfaction with their socio-economic status compared to their poorer counterparts. We explain this finding by increased fear for falling into poverty due to lockdowns and inflation.
本研究通过分析新冠疫情对一个发展中国家主观幸福感（SWB）的影响，特别是对社会经济地位满意度的影响，为幸福研究的现有文献做出了贡献。利用新冠疫情爆发前后巴基斯坦城市的调查数据，我们发现，在疫情初期以及相关的社会 distancing 和潜在封锁期间，主观幸福感下降，尤其是在失业者、已婚夫妇、男性和老年人中。出乎意料的是，我们还观察到，与较贫困家庭相比，收入较高的家庭在社会经济地位满意度方面受疫情影响更大。我们将这一发现解释为由于封锁和通货膨胀导致对陷入贫困的恐惧增加。
