Does your culture affect your retirement decision? Evidence from Switzerland

Lionel Cottier, University of Lausanne

The impact of culture on individuals’ decisions is a question which has interested economists and other social scientists for a long time. People choose their job, follow a certain lifestyle and make choices based on many factors.

Intergenerational social mobility: a Europe wide picture

Marii Paskov, Institute for New Economic Thinking and Department of Social Policy and Intervention, University of Oxford, Erzsébet Bukodi, Nuffield College, University of Oxford and Brian Nolan, Institute for New Economic Thinking, University of Oxford

Intergenerational social mobility refers to the relationship between the socio-economic position an individual occupies and the socio-economic position in which he or she was brought up.

What makes entrepreneurs happy?

Maria Petrescu, Nova Southeastern University and Aycan Kara, Indiana University Southeast

Is it the amount of money they make or the excitement they encounter in their job? Are self-employed individuals on their own, with no employees, happier because of the independence they have or are they more stressed out because of their sole responsibility for the functioning of their venture?

Social capital and subjective well-being

Anna Ermolina, PhD student, Russian Plekhanov University of Economics

This research aims to explore the importance of social capital for subjective well-being (SWB) in the late life in Central and Eastern European (CEE) countries.

Cross-country variations in happiness

Marion Burkimsher, Affiliate Researcher, University of Lausanne

The question “Taking all things together, how happy would you say you are?” has been fielded in all seven waves of the European Social Survey. We looked at the trends over the seven waves from 2002-2014 

The role of elections in anti-immigrant sentiment

Carolyn Keller, Assistant Professor of Sociology, Keene State College

In November 2015, I had the opportunity to walk two blocks to the high school down the road and watch Donald Trump stump for the New Hampshire primary.  It was during this event that Mr. Trump said, for the first time, that all Syrians are “on notice” and threatened to send them all back to Syria upon his election.

What is the role of government?

Nate Breznau, Mannheim Centre for European Social Research (MZES), Germany

Individuals have all kinds of ideas about what their governments should and should not provide for them and others. Their preferences for the ideal role of government can be particularly heated or contentious due to the massive amounts of goods and services that governments provide via social welfare policies; things like pensions, health care and (un)employment.