Katja Lemermeyer's ARIA project:听Budgeting for Happiness in Canada
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The purpose of my ARIA project was to synthesize knowledge on life satisfaction (or closely related measures of subjective wellbeing (SWB) experience), applied to the Canadian context and, where possible, derived from Canadian data. My ARIA research project consisted of compiling, reading, and evaluating literature on subjective wellbeing measures to produce a table of impact. I first assembled a database of Canadian SWB literature by searching relevant social science databases and importing citations into a citation manager software. I then began a systematic review of the literature to tag and sort the evidence available for as many policy-relevant life circumstances and social investments as possible. Primarily, my focus was on research conducted in the Canadian context although I additionally drew on insights from international literature including from Germany, France, Australia, New Zealand and the United Kingdom. The result was a table of impact which includes coefficients, confidence intervals, an account of the degree of causal specificity, and key literature references for each available domain of life/policy. These include areas from health, employment, and income, to social trust and belonging, the quality of relationships, and the proximity of green spaces.
I had been working as a Casual Research Assistant for Professor Barrington-Leigh for over a year now working on various smaller projects. The ARIA program provided an exciting opportunity to undertake a much larger project than we have in our work together so far, and to gain a much more comprehensive understanding of his area of expertise. Given the nature of the work and our well-established working relationship, I also knew the project would be well-suited to a remote working/meeting setup in the context of COVID-19.
Furthermore, in Canada, federal, provincial, and civic governments are increasingly interested in the use of self-reported life satisfaction as an alternative to traditional economic indicators to guide policy making. An eventual, concrete goal in this regard is to be able to carry out quantitative benefit/cost evaluation of public investments and policy changes using the best evidence on the individual, social, and collective determinants of life satisfaction over the life course of Canadians. As such, a table of quantitative life satisfaction impacts based on the best available evidence is an important and useful resource to inform the early stages of assembling the infrastructure necessary for a wellbeing framework of policy evaluation.
My key learning objectives for this project were to develop and refine my critical thinking skills as well as improve my literacy of economic research and econometric analysis. I sought to synthesize research from multiple sources, to develop and execute my own methodology for this project-specific literature review, with the overarching aim of contextualizing economic literature within broader social and political systems.
This project gave me the opportunity and incentive to develop a much deeper familiarity with SWB literature than I likely would have otherwise. The economics of wellbeing is a relatively new field which has reached maturity in the past couple of decades and, in this light, reading the Canadian literature over this time period provided a fascinating look into the evolution and maturation of the discipline and its methodological approach. Subjective wellbeing may be measured in many ways, and it was a definite highlight to trace the emergence and increased adoption of the 11-point satisfaction with life question.
Reading through many dense academic papers and regression tables during the literature review stage provided a challenge to stay focused while working from home. One strategy was to create a clearer time management use plan with an accounting of my hours and tasks which I shared with my supervisor. Additionally, investing in improvements to my workspace (including the use of a standing desk, and an external monitor) made ARIA work something which was healthier for my physical wellbeing, and made staying focused much easier.
The ARIA program has given me the opportunity to take a deep dive into an area of interest of mine within the broader discipline of economics. The nature of collecting findings in Canadian literature also led naturally to the identification of gaps in the literature which have the potential to inform pertinent and well-defined research questions for a potential master鈥檚 thesis or future research project of mine.
My ARIA project was made possible by the generous contribution of Mr. Harry Samuel. I am so grateful for his support and for the Arts Research Internship Award programme enabling me to have a fulfilling, interesting summer project despite the limitations imposed by the COVID-19 pandemic.
