Bruno Frey, Tullock challenges: happiness, revolutions, and democracy, Public Choice, Vol. 148 (3-4), 2011. (Journal Article)
Gordon Tullock is one of the most important of the founders and contributors to Public Choice. Two innovations are typical “Tullock Challenges.” The first relates to method: the measurement of subjective well-being, or happiness. The second relates to digital social networks, such as Facebook, Twitter, and to some extent Google. Both innovations lead to strong incentives by governments to manipulate the policy outcomes. In general, “What is important will be manipulated by the government.” To restrain government manipulation, one has to turn to Constitutional Economics and increase the possibilities for direct popular participation and federalism or introduce random mechanisms. |
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Bruno Frey, Graubünden im Fusionsfieber: Ein Appell zur Nachdenklichkeit, In: Die Südostschweiz, p. 22, 22 July 2011. (Newspaper Article)
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Bruno Frey, Happiness – a revolution in social science, In: nexus: Warwick Business School Alumni Association magazine, p. 15, 1 July 2011. (Newspaper Article)
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Bruno Frey, Sylvia Frey Werlen, Ältere werden zu schnell aussortiert, In: Baz Basler Allgemeine Zeitung, p. 14, 7 June 2011. (Newspaper Article)
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Bruno Frey, Was der materielle Wohlstand über das Glück der Menschen aussagt, In: Handelszeitung, 14, p. 7, 7 April 2011. (Newspaper Article)
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Bruno Frey, Tullock challenges: happiness, revolutions and democracy, In: Working paper series / Department of Economics, No. No. 15, 2011. (Working Paper)
Gordon Tullock has been one of the most important founders and contributors to Public Choice. Two innovations are typical “Tullock Challenges”. The first relates to method: the measurement of subjective well-being, or happiness. The second relates to digital social networks such as Facebook, Twitter, or to some extent Google. Both innovations lead to strong incentives by the governments to manipulate the policy consequences. In general “What is important, will be manipulated by the government”. To restrain government manipulation one has to turn to Constitutional Economics and increase the possibilities for direct popular participation and federalism, or introduce random mechanisms. |
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Bruno Frey, Paolo Pamini, World Heritage: Where are we? An empirical analysis, In: Working paper series / Department of Economics, No. No. 11, 2011. (Working Paper)
A statistical analysis of the UNESCO World Heritage List is presented. The World Heritage Convention intends to protect global heritage of outstanding value to mankind, but there has been great concern about the missing representativity of the member countries. There is a strongly biased distribution of Sites according to a country’s population, area or per capita income. The paper reveals the facts but refrains from judging whether the existing distribution is appropriate or not. This task must be left to the discussion in the World Heritage Convention. |
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Lasse Steiner, Bruno Frey, Imbalance of World Heritage List: Did the UNESCO Strategy Work?, In: Working paper series / Department of Economics, No. No. 14, 2011. (Working Paper)
The official intention of the UNESCO World Heritage List is to protect the global heritage. However, the imbalance of the distribution of Sites according to countries and continents is striking. Consequently, the World Heritage Committee launched the Global Strategy for a Balanced, Representative and Credible World Heritage List in 1994. To date, there have not been any empirical analyses conducted to study the impact of this strategy. This paper shows that the imbalance did not decrease and perhaps increased over time, thus reflecting the inability of the Global Strategy to achieve a more balanced distribution of Sites. |
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Bruno Frey, Steuerzahler von morgen, In: Weltwoche, 7, p. 19, 17 February 2011. (Newspaper Article)
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Bruno Frey, Happy people live longer, Science, Vol. 331 (6017), 2011. (Journal Article)
There is a longstanding idea that happiness causes people to live longer, healthier lives. However, convincing evidence that subjective well-being (the more scholarly term for happiness) contributes to longevity and health has not been available. Recently, however, social psychologists Diener and Chan (1) showed that many kinds of studies, using different methods, conclude that happiness has a positive causal effect on longevity and physiological health. |
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Bruno Frey, David A Savage, Benno Torgler, Who perished on the Titanic? The importance of social norms, Rationality and Society, Vol. 23 (1), 2011. (Journal Article)
This paper seeks to empirically identify what factors make it more or less likely for people to survive in a life-threatening situation. Three factors relate to individual attributes of the persons onboard: physical strength, economic resources, and nationality. Two relate to social aspects: social support and social norms. The Titanic disaster is a life-or-death situation. Otherwise-disregarded aspects of human nature become apparent in such a dangerous situation. The empirical analysis supports the notion that social norms are a key determinant in extreme situations of life or death. |
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Bruno Frey, Helfen macht glücklich, In: Zentralschweiz am Sonntag, 1, p. 37 - 38, 2 January 2011. (Newspaper Article)
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Bruno Frey, Lasse Steiner, Echter Fussball statt Glücksspiel!, In: SonntagsZeitung, p. 10, 2 January 2011. (Newspaper Article)
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Bruno Frey, Subjective well-being, politics and political economy, Schweizerische Zeitschrift für Volkswirtschaft und Statistik = Swiss journal of economics and statistics, Vol. 147 (4), 2011. (Journal Article)
Happiness research has significantly extended our knowledge about the factors determining individual well-being. Several prominent scholars concluded that governments should engage in maximizing happiness. This approach is based on a technocratic notion that politicians are omniscient benevolent dictators.In contrast, the constitutional approach considers individuals as citizens who, behind the veil of ignorance, choose political rules producing the best possible outcome. Citizens are aware of the Manipulation Principle stating that government tends to distort official happiness indicators in its favour. Citizens therefore demand extensive democratic participation rights allowing them to pursue the kind of happiness they desire. |
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Bruno Frey, Margit Osterloh, Zeitoum Hossam, Ökonomik als Denkweise: aussermarktliche Ökonomik, In: Religion- Wirtschaft - Politik, Pano, Zürich, p. 351 - 367, 2011. (Book Chapter)
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Bruno Frey, Peace, war, and happiness: Bruder Klaus as wellbeing facilitator, International Journal of Wellbeing, Vol. 1 (2), 2011. (Journal Article)
Little is known in the scholarly literature about the effect of war and peace on happiness; but they have a large number of direct and indirect effects on happiness, difficult or impossible to capture due mainly to issues of causality and attribution. The paper concentrates on three fundamental claims regarding the effect of war and peace on happiness: ‘War brings happiness’; ‘People adjust to wars’; and ‘The happiness of the dead is irrelevant’. An attempt is made to discuss different solutions to deal with these claims but it is made clear that each one has grave disadvantages. Bruder Klaus, whose full name was Niklaus von Flüeh, is the patron saint of Switzerland. This paper describes Bruder Klaus as a creator of peace and, based on the claims mentioned above, as a felicitator or wellbeing facilitator. |
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Bruno Frey, Alois Stutzer, Susanne Neckermann, Direct democracy and the constitution, In: Constitutional Mythologies: New Perspectives on Controlling the State, Springer Science + Business Media, New York, p. 107 - 119, 2011. (Book Chapter)
This chapter applies a comparative view to evaluate initiatives and referendums in the context of Constitutional change. Instruments of direct democratic decision making are compared to those of a purely representative democratic system in which members of parliament decide Constitutional issues like basic rights, the scope of democratic decision making and market exchange, the organization of government and the judiciary, and the federal structure of the country. Section 2 briefly describes aspects of direct democratic decision making that we deem critical from a Constitutional economics perspective. In particular, we hint to changes in the political process if citizens are directly involved through initiatives and referendums. |
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Bruno Frey, Punishment - and Beyond, Contemporary Economics, Vol. 5 (2), 2011. (Journal Article)
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Bruno Frey, Happiness - a revolution in social science, 2011. (Other Publication)
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Bruno Frey, Evaluitis – Eine neue Krankheit, In: Musen Mythen Mentoring, Universität der Künste Berlin, Berlin, p. 119 - 131, 2011. (Book Chapter)
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