Bernard M.S. van Praag
Encyclopedia
Bernard M.S. van Praag is a Dutch economist
. He is noted for his pioneering research over the past forty years on the measurement of welfare, well-being and happiness
.
and grew up in Bloemendaal
.
He studied econometrics
at the University of Amsterdam where he got his Ph.D. degree cum laude in 1968. Appointed professor at the Free University of Brussels
1969, in 1970 associate professor at Erasmus University
, Rotterdam
(1970), professor of economics at the University of Leyden (1972), professor at Erasmus University
(1984), professor in "applied economic research" at the University of Amsterdam (1992) and managing director of the Foundation for Economic Research. In 2000 he became Distinguished University Professor at the University of Amsterdam. He was the founding president of the European Society for Population Economics (ESPE) and co-editor of the Journal for Population Economics, Journal of Health Economics
. He was a member of the Dutch Social Economic Council. From 1988-1992 he was a member of the (Dutch) Scientific Council for Government Policy
, a prominent advisory body for the Dutch government on long term policy issues. He was the responsible Council member for the Council’s report "Ouderen voor Ouderen", which initiated the demographic discussion on the ageing society in the Netherlands.
Based on this idea he devised a specific question module , the Income Evaluation Question (IEQ) , intended to ask respondents which income level they would call "good", "sufficient", "bad", etc. The IEQ has been posed since 1970 to many thousands of respondents in large-scale surveys. He succeeded in estimating the WFI for thousands of individuals in most countries of Western Europe. Van Praag discovered the phenomenon of preference drift (comparable to the hedonic treadmill
), which means that the WFI of the individual depends on his current income and shifts with rising income to the right. Kapteyn and Van Praag discovered reference drift, which means that individual welfare depends on the income of the reference group members. Furthermore, the analysis led to the estimation of subjective family equivalence scales , and subjective definitions of poverty. He carried out several large scale poverty studies for the European Union
. Van Praag is also active on econometric methodology, labour and health economics
, conjoint or vignette analysis and the economics of ageing.
In fact, The Leyden School may be seen as a precursor of modern happiness economics
by about twenty years.
He published in a wide range of journals, including the Review of Economics and Statistics
, European Economic Review, Journal of Public Economics, Journal of Population Economics, Econometrica
, Psychometrika, Journal of Econometrics
, Journal of Applied Econometrics, Review of Income and Wealth, Journal of Human Resources, Journal of Economic Psychology, Health Economics
, Journal of Health Economics
, Health Economics
, Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization, the Economic Journal, Journal of Happiness Studies, Journal of Income Distribution, Journal of Economic Inequality.
He enriched his research by adopting the satisfaction question module used by modern happiness economists. His main new results are the application of happiness economics with Barbara Baarsma to estimate shadow prices of airplane noise hindrance near Amsterdam Airport, which method may be used for estimating the shadow prices of other external effects as well and the development of a two-layer model with Frijters and Ferrer-i-Carbonell, where life satisfaction is seen as an aggregate of domain satisfactions. He published in 2004 the comprehensive monograph "Happiness Quantified, a Satisfaction Calculus Approach" (with Ada Ferrer-i-Carbonell), which was revised in 2008 and translated into Chinese in 2010. He is a regular contributor to the Dutch dailies NRC Handelsblad
and de Volkskrant
and the professional weekly Economisch-Statistische Berichten.
, member of the Royal Dutch Academy of Sciences, elected as a member of the International Statistical Institute
, member of the Royal Dutch Society of Sciences, Fellow of CESifo Munich, IZA Bonn, DIW Berlin, AIAS Amsterdam, Honorary Fellow and chairman–founder (1986) of the Tinbergen Institute
.
Economist
An economist is a professional in the social science discipline of economics. The individual may also study, develop, and apply theories and concepts from economics and write about economic policy...
. He is noted for his pioneering research over the past forty years on the measurement of welfare, well-being and happiness
Happiness
Happiness is a mental state of well-being characterized by positive emotions ranging from contentment to intense joy. A variety of biological, psychological, religious, and philosophical approaches have striven to define happiness and identify its sources....
.
Background
Van Praag was born in 1939 in AmsterdamAmsterdam
Amsterdam is the largest city and the capital of the Netherlands. The current position of Amsterdam as capital city of the Kingdom of the Netherlands is governed by the constitution of August 24, 1815 and its successors. Amsterdam has a population of 783,364 within city limits, an urban population...
and grew up in Bloemendaal
Bloemendaal
Bloemendaal is a municipality and a town in the Netherlands, in the province of North Holland. According to the Dutch Central Statistical Bureau, Bloemendaal is the wealthiest place in the Netherlands.-Population centres :...
.
He studied econometrics
Econometrics
Econometrics has been defined as "the application of mathematics and statistical methods to economic data" and described as the branch of economics "that aims to give empirical content to economic relations." More precisely, it is "the quantitative analysis of actual economic phenomena based on...
at the University of Amsterdam where he got his Ph.D. degree cum laude in 1968. Appointed professor at the Free University of Brussels
Free University of Brussels
The Free University of Brussels was a university in Brussels, Belgium. In 1969, it split into the Université Libre de Bruxelles and the Dutch-speaking Vrije Universiteit Brussel....
1969, in 1970 associate professor at Erasmus University
Erasmus University
Erasmus University Rotterdam is a university in the Netherlands, located in Rotterdam. The university is named after Desiderius Erasmus Roterodamus, a 15th century humanist and theologian...
, Rotterdam
Rotterdam
Rotterdam is the second-largest city in the Netherlands and one of the largest ports in the world. Starting as a dam on the Rotte river, Rotterdam has grown into a major international commercial centre...
(1970), professor of economics at the University of Leyden (1972), professor at Erasmus University
Erasmus University
Erasmus University Rotterdam is a university in the Netherlands, located in Rotterdam. The university is named after Desiderius Erasmus Roterodamus, a 15th century humanist and theologian...
(1984), professor in "applied economic research" at the University of Amsterdam (1992) and managing director of the Foundation for Economic Research. In 2000 he became Distinguished University Professor at the University of Amsterdam. He was the founding president of the European Society for Population Economics (ESPE) and co-editor of the Journal for Population Economics, Journal of Health Economics
Journal of Health Economics
The Journal of Health Economics is a peer-reviewed academic journal that publishes articles about health economics and related fields concerning human health care and medicine. The journal is published six times annually by Elsevier. The editor in chief is J.P. Newhouse. According to the Journal...
. He was a member of the Dutch Social Economic Council. From 1988-1992 he was a member of the (Dutch) Scientific Council for Government Policy
Scientific Council for Government Policy
The Scientific Council for Government Policy is an independent think tank of the Dutch government....
, a prominent advisory body for the Dutch government on long term policy issues. He was the responsible Council member for the Council’s report "Ouderen voor Ouderen", which initiated the demographic discussion on the ageing society in the Netherlands.
Leyden school
During his Leyden period (1972–84) he initiated and acted as leader of the Leyden School project, his main co-authors being Arie Kapteyn and Aldi Hagenaars. Van Praag argued in his Ph.D. dissertation (1968) that utility of money (called by Van Praag the individual welfare function of income (WFI) ) could be seen as a cardinal concept.Based on this idea he devised a specific question module , the Income Evaluation Question (IEQ) , intended to ask respondents which income level they would call "good", "sufficient", "bad", etc. The IEQ has been posed since 1970 to many thousands of respondents in large-scale surveys. He succeeded in estimating the WFI for thousands of individuals in most countries of Western Europe. Van Praag discovered the phenomenon of preference drift (comparable to the hedonic treadmill
Hedonic treadmill
The hedonic treadmill, also known as hedonic adaptation, is the supposed tendency of humans to quickly return to a relatively stable level of happiness despite major positive or negative events or life changes....
), which means that the WFI of the individual depends on his current income and shifts with rising income to the right. Kapteyn and Van Praag discovered reference drift, which means that individual welfare depends on the income of the reference group members. Furthermore, the analysis led to the estimation of subjective family equivalence scales , and subjective definitions of poverty. He carried out several large scale poverty studies for the European Union
European Union
The European Union is an economic and political union of 27 independent member states which are located primarily in Europe. The EU traces its origins from the European Coal and Steel Community and the European Economic Community , formed by six countries in 1958...
. Van Praag is also active on econometric methodology, labour and health economics
Health economics
Health economics is a branch of economics concerned with issues related to efficiency, effectiveness, value and behavior in the production and consumption of health and health care...
, conjoint or vignette analysis and the economics of ageing.
In fact, The Leyden School may be seen as a precursor of modern happiness economics
Happiness economics
Happiness economics is the quantitative study of happiness, positive and negative affect, well-being, quality of life, life satisfaction and related concepts, typically combining economics with other fields such as psychology and sociology. It typically treats such happiness-related measures,...
by about twenty years.
He published in a wide range of journals, including the Review of Economics and Statistics
Review of Economics and Statistics
The Review of Economics and Statistics is a peer-reviewed scientific journal specializing in applied quantitative economics, now called econometrics. It was founded in 1917 and first published as The Review of Economic Statistics in 1919...
, European Economic Review, Journal of Public Economics, Journal of Population Economics, Econometrica
Econometrica
Econometrica is a peer-reviewed academic journal of economics, publishing articles not only in econometrics but in many areas of economics. It is published by the Econometric Society and distributed by Wiley-Blackwell. Econometrica is one of the most highly ranked economics journals in the world...
, Psychometrika, Journal of Econometrics
Journal of Econometrics
The Journal of Econometrics is a leading scholarly journal in econometrics. It was first published in 1973. Its current editors are A.R. Gallant, J.F. Geweke, C. Hsiao, and P.M...
, Journal of Applied Econometrics, Review of Income and Wealth, Journal of Human Resources, Journal of Economic Psychology, Health Economics
Health Economics
Health Economics is a journal published by John Wiley & Sons, covering the subject of health economics. It was established in 1992, and is published monthly.- See also :* Health economics* Journal of Health Economics...
, Journal of Health Economics
Journal of Health Economics
The Journal of Health Economics is a peer-reviewed academic journal that publishes articles about health economics and related fields concerning human health care and medicine. The journal is published six times annually by Elsevier. The editor in chief is J.P. Newhouse. According to the Journal...
, Health Economics
Health Economics
Health Economics is a journal published by John Wiley & Sons, covering the subject of health economics. It was established in 1992, and is published monthly.- See also :* Health economics* Journal of Health Economics...
, Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization, the Economic Journal, Journal of Happiness Studies, Journal of Income Distribution, Journal of Economic Inequality.
More recent research
After a relative calm period, during which Van Praag was engaged in semi-commercial research, Van Praag resumed his non-commercial research at the end of the nineties.He enriched his research by adopting the satisfaction question module used by modern happiness economists. His main new results are the application of happiness economics with Barbara Baarsma to estimate shadow prices of airplane noise hindrance near Amsterdam Airport, which method may be used for estimating the shadow prices of other external effects as well and the development of a two-layer model with Frijters and Ferrer-i-Carbonell, where life satisfaction is seen as an aggregate of domain satisfactions. He published in 2004 the comprehensive monograph "Happiness Quantified, a Satisfaction Calculus Approach" (with Ada Ferrer-i-Carbonell), which was revised in 2008 and translated into Chinese in 2010. He is a regular contributor to the Dutch dailies NRC Handelsblad
NRC Handelsblad
NRC Handelsblad, often abbreviated to NRC, is a daily evening newspaper published in the Netherlands by NRC Media. The newspaper was created on October 1, 1970, from merger of the Nieuwe Rotterdamsche Courant and Algemeen Handelsblad . In 2006 a morning newspaper, nrc•next, was launched...
and de Volkskrant
De Volkskrant
de Volkskrant is a national daily Dutch morning newspaper, the leading centre-left broadsheet, although now in tabloid size.-History:...
and the professional weekly Economisch-Statistische Berichten.
Honors
He is a Fellow Emeritus of the European Economic AssociationEuropean Economic Association
The European Economic Association is a professional academic body which links European economists. It was founded in the mid-1980s. Its first annual congress was in 1986 in Vienna, Austria...
, member of the Royal Dutch Academy of Sciences, elected as a member of the International Statistical Institute
International Statistical Institute
The International Statistical Institute is a professional association of statisticians. The Institut International de Statistique or International Statistical Institute was founded in 1885 although there had been international congresses from 1853.. The Institute publishes a variety of books and...
, member of the Royal Dutch Society of Sciences, Fellow of CESifo Munich, IZA Bonn, DIW Berlin, AIAS Amsterdam, Honorary Fellow and chairman–founder (1986) of the Tinbergen Institute
Tinbergen Institute
The Tinbergen Institute is a joint institute for economic research of the University of Amsterdam, the Vrije Universiteit and the Erasmus University...
.
Partial bibliography
- 1971 The Welfare Function of Income in Belgium: an Empirical Investigation (B.M.S. van Praag), European Economic Review, vol.2, pp. 337-369
- 1973 Further Evidence on the Individual Welfare Function of Income: an Empirical Investigation in The Netherlands (Bernard M.S. van Praag, Arie Kapteyn), European Economic Review, vol. 4, pp. 33-62
- 1975 The Introduction of an Old-Age Pension in a Growing Economy: a First Approach (Bernard van Praag, Guy Poeth), Journal of Public Economics, vol. 4, pp. 87-100
- 1975 Utility, Welfare and Probability: an Unorthodox Economist's View(B.M.S. van Praag), in: Utility, Probability and Human Decision Making, D. Wendt and C. Vlek (eds.), D. Reidel Publishing Company, Dordrecht, Holland, pp. 279-295
- 1976 A New Approach to the Construction of Family Equivalence Scales (A. Kapteyn, Bernard van Praag), European Economic Review, vol. 7, pp. 313-335
- 1976 The Individual Welfare Function and its Offspring (B.M.S. van Praag), in: Relevance and Precision, J.S. Cramer et al. (eds.),North-Holland Publishing Company, Amsterdam, pp. 263-293
- 1977 The Perception of Welfare Inequality (B.M.S. van Praag), European Economic Review, vol. 10, pp. 189-207
- 1977 Goedhart, Th., V. Halberstadt, A. Kapteyn, and B.M.S. van Praag, 1977. "The Poverty Line: Concept and Measurement", The Journal of Human Resources, 12: 503-520
- 1978 Individual Welfare Functions and Social Reference Spaces (Arie Kapteyn, Bernard M.S. van Praag, Floor G. van Herwaarden),Economics Letters, vol. 1, pp. 173-178
- 1980 Towards an Economic Theory of Non-Employability: a First Approach (B.M.S. van Praag,V. Halberstadt),in:Public Choice and Public Finance,K.W. Roskamp (ed.), proceedings of the 34th Congress of the IIPF,Hamburg 1978, Paris, Editions Cujas, COEPS-report 78.17, pp. 211-223
- 1980 Van Praag, B.M.S., Th. Goedhart, and Arie Kapteyn. The Poverty Line - A Pilot Survey in Europe, The Review of Economics and Statistics, 62(3):461-465.
- 1981 The Demand for Deductibles in Private Health Insurance; a Probit Model with Sample Selection (W.P.M.M. van de Ven, B.M.S. van Praag), Journal of Econometrics, vol. 17, pp. 229-252
- 1981 Reflections on the Theory of Individual Welfare Functions (B.M.S.van Praag), Report 81.14, Centre for Research in Public Economics, Leyden University, proceedings of the American Statistical Association
- 1982 A Comparison between the Food Ratio Poverty Line and the Leyden Poverty Line (B. M.S. van Praag, J.S. Spit, H. van de Stadt), The Review of Economics and Statistics, vol. 64, nr. 4, pp. 691-694
- 1982 Poverty in Europe (B.M.S. van Praag, A.J.M. Hagenaars, H. van Weeren), Review of Income and Wealth, vol. 28, pp. 345-359 1985 Linking Economics with Psychology: an Economist's View (B.M.S.van Praag), Journal of Economic Psychology, vol. 6, 1985,pp. 189-311
- 1988 Household Cost Functions and Equivalence Scales (B.M.S. van Praag, N.L. van der Sar), Journal of Human Resources, vol. 23, pp.193-210
- 1988 Large Sample Properties of Method of Moment Estimators under Different Data Generating Processes (B.M.S. van Praag, T. Kloek, J. de Leeuw), Journal of Econometrics, vol. 37, pp. 157-169
- 1988 Climate Equivalence Scales: an Application of a General Method,European Economic Review, vol. 32, nr. 4, pp. 1019-1024
- 1988 On the Measurement and Explanation of Standards with respect to Income, Age and Education (Bernard M.S. van Praag, Steve Dubnoff, Nico L. van der Sar), Journal of Economic Psychology, 9,pp. 481-498
- 1988 Memory and Anticipation Processes and their Significance for Social Security and Income Inequality (B.M.S. van Praag, J. van Weeren) , in: Applied Behavioral Economics, vol. 2, S. Maital (ed.),Wheatsheaf, Brighton, pp. 731-751
- 1991 Ordinal and Cardinal Utility: an Integration of the Two Dimensions of the Welfare Concept (B.M.S. van Praag), Journal of Econometrics, vol. 50, pp. 69-89
- 1993 The Relativity of the Welfare Concept (B.M.S. van Praag) in:Quality of Life, A. Sen, M. Nussbaum (eds.), Clarence Press, Oxford
- 1995 New Developments in the Measurement of Welfare and Well-Being (Bernard M.S. van Praag and Erik J.S. Plug), Invited Lecture presented at the Ragnar Frisch Centennial Conference.
- 1998 The effects of climate on welfare and well-being in Russia (P.Frijters, B.M.S. van Praag), Climatic Change, 39, pp. 61–81
Books
- 1968 Individual Welfare Functions and Consumer Behavior - a Theory of Rational Irrationality, North-Holland Publishing Company, Amsterdam, Contributions to Economic Analysis, nr. 57
- 1998 The Distribution of Welfare and Household Production: International Perspectives (Stephen P. Jenkins, Arie Kapteyn, Bernard M.S. van Praag, eds.), Cambridge University Press,Cambridge, United Kingdom
- 2004 B.M.S. van Praag and A. Ferrer-i-Carbonell. Happiness Quantified: A Satisfaction Calculus Approach Oxford University Press, Oxford: UK , revised in 2008, Chinese translation 2009.
Recent publications
- 1999 B.M.S. van Praag, P. Frijters. The Measurement of Welfare and Well-Being; the Leyden Approach. In: Well-Being: the Foundations of Hedonic Psychology, D. Kahneman, E. Diener, N. Schwarz (eds.), Russell Sage Foundation, New York, pp. 413–433
- 2002 A. Ferrer-i-Carbonell and B.M.S. van Praag. The subjective costs of health losses due to chronic diseases. An alternative model for monetary appraisal. Health Economics, vol 11, pp. 709–722.
- 2003 B.M.S. van Praag, P. Frijters, A. Ferrer-i-Carbonell. The Anatomy of Subjective Well-being. Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization, vol. 51, pp. 29–49.
- 2005 Bernard.M.S. van Praag and Barbara E. Baarsma. Using happiness surveys to value intangibles: the case of airport noise. Economic Journal. Volume 115, Issue 500, Page 224-246, Jan 2005
- 2007 Praag, Bernard M.S. Perspectives from the happiness literature and the role of new instruments for policy analysis. CESifo Economic Studies
- 2008 Praag, C.M. van & Praag, B.M.S. van. The benefits of Being Economics Professor A (rather than Z). Economica, 75(300) , 169-191.
- 2008 Hatzmann, J., Heymans, H.S., Ferrer-i-Carbonell, A., Van Praag, B. & Grootenhuis, M.A. Hidden consequences of success in pediatrics: parental health-related quality of life-results from the care project. Pediatrics, 122 , (5), 1030-1038.
- 2008 Chris van Klaveren, Bernard van Praag & Henriette Maassen van den Brink. A public good version of the collective household model: an empirical approach with an application to British household data. Review of Economics of the Household, 6 , (2), 169-191
- 2009 Booij, A.S. & B.M.S. van Praag. A Simultaneous Approach to the Estimation of Risk Aversion and the Subjective Time Discount Rate. Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization, 70 , (1-2), 374-388.
- 2010 Bernard M.S. van Praag & Ada Ferrer-i-Carbonell. Towards an Urban Quality of Life Index: Basic Theory and Econometric Methods. In E. Lora, A. Powell, B.M.S. van Praag & P. Sanguinetti, The Quality of LiIfe in Latin American Cities.pp. Ch.3, p. 65-91). Inter-American Development Bank & The World Bank.
- 2010 A.S. Booij, B.M.S. van Praag & G. van de Kuilen. A parametric analysis of prospect theory's functionals for the general population. Theory and Decision , 68, (1), 115-148.
- 2010 Eduardo Lora, Andrew Powell, Bernard M.S. van Praag, Pablo Sanguinetti (eds). The Quality of Life in Latin American Cities. Inter-American Development Bank and The World Bank (co-publication).
- 2010 Praag, Bernard M.S. Well-Being Inequality and Reference Groups - An Agenda for New Research, forthcoming in journal of Economic Inequality.
External links
- http://www1.fee.uva.nl/pp/bvanpraag/ http://www1.fee.uva.nl/pp/bvanpraag/
- http://ideas.repec.org/e/pva16.html http://ideas.repec.org/e/pva16.html
- http://www.iza.org/ http://www.iza.org/
- http://www.cesifo-group.de/ http://www.cesifo-group.de/