Creative Destruction and Subjective Wellbeing

Philippe Aghion, Ufuk Akcigit, Angus Deaton, Alexandra Roulet

NBER Working Paper No. 21069
Issued in April 2015
NBER Program(s):Economic Fluctuations and Growth

In this paper we analyze the relationship between turnover-driven growth and subjective wellbeing, using cross-sectional MSA level US data. We find that the effect of creative destruction on wellbeing is (i) unambiguously positive if we control for MSA-level unemployment, less so if we do not; (ii) more positive on future wellbeing than on current well-being; (iii) more positive in MSAs with faster growing industries or with industries that are less prone to outsourcing; (iv) more positive in MSAs within states with more generous unemployment insurance policies.

Acknowledgments

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Document Object Identifier (DOI): 10.3386/w21069

Published: Philippe Aghion & Ufuk Akcigit & Angus Deaton & Alexandra Roulet, 2016. "Creative Destruction and Subjective Well-Being," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 106(12), pages 3869-3897, December. citation courtesy of