THE SCOTS MAY BE BRAVE BUT THEY ARE NEITHER HEALTHY NOR HAPPY
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9485.2007.00410.x |
| Author | David G. Blanchflower,David Bell |
| Published date | 01 May 2007 |
| Date | 01 May 2007 |
THESCOTSMAYBEBRAVEBUTTHEY
ARE NEITHER HEALTHY NOR HAPPY
David Bell
n
and David G. Blanchflower
nn
Abstract
On almost all measures of physical health, Scots fare worse than residents of any
other region of the UK and often worse than the rest of Europe. Deaths from
chronic liver disease and lung cancer are particularly prevalent in Scotland. The
self-assessed well-being of Scots is lower than that of the English or Welsh, even
after taking into account any differences in characteristics. Scots also suffer from
higher levels of self-assessed depression or phobia, accidental death and suicide
than those in other parts of Great Britain. This result is particularly driven by
outcomes in Strathclyde and is consistent with the high scores for other measures of
social deprivation in this area. On average, indicators of social capital in Scotland
are no worse than in England or Wales. Detailed analysis within Scotland,
however, shows that social capital indicators for the Strathclyde area are relatively
low. We argue that these problems need to be directly targeted as they seem
unlikely to be fixed by more indirect policies aimed at raising economic growth.
I Intro ductio n
The principal policy objective of the Scottish Executive is to increase Scotland’s
rate of economic growth.
1
Yet, as Oswald (1997), points out ‘economic
performance is not intrinsically interesting. No one is concerned in a genuine
sense about the level of gross national product last year or about next year’s
exchange rate’. The proposition that measures of economic performance are not
valued in themselves is very plausible. It is therefore reasonable to ask why
economic growth is elevated above all other policy objectives by the Scottish
Executive.
Economists’ usual response is that growth increases gross national income,
which in turn leads to increases in ‘well-being’, ‘welfare’ or ‘life satisfaction’
among the population. Growth is therefore a means to an end. It permits higher
n
University of Stirling
nn
Dartmouth College
1
This policy was agreed in May 2003 by the Liberal-Democrat/Labour coalition. At this
time, it was believed that Scotland’s growth rate lagged well behind that of the UK as a whole.
But data revisions published in 2004 show that differences in growth rates between Scotland
and the rest of the UK over the last four decades have been negligible.
Scottish Journal of Political Economy, Vol. 54, No. 2, May 2007
r2007 The Authors
Journal compilation r2007 Scottish Economic Society. Published by Blackwell Publishing Ltd,
9600 Garsington Road, Oxford, OX4 2DQ, UK and 350 Main St, Malden, MA, 02148, USA
166
levels of consumption, which in turn leads to higher levels of well-being among
the population.
Until recently, economists have tended not to question the link from
measures of economic performance to individual well-being or happiness. But
with the advent of surveys which question individuals about their views of ‘life
satisfaction’ or ‘happiness’, a substantial literature on these links has built up.
There is even a world database on happiness.
2
For a summary of this literature,
see Blanchflower and Oswald (2004a, b). The questions asked in the
Eurobarometer survey are fairly typical. In a majority of the Eurobarometer
surveys respondents have been asked the question: On the whole, are you very
satisfied, fairly satisfied, not very satisfied, or not at all satisfied with the life you
lead? For the years 1975–1986 respondents were also asked about their
happiness – Taking all things together how would you say things are these days,
would you say you’re very happy, fairly happy or not too happy these days?
Even though such questions have been asked for a considerable time in
Scotland, to our knowledge there has been no attempt to analyse such data. This
paper is the first to examine these data for Scotland in detail.
Most of the recent literature has focused on the analysis of subjective
measures of well-being. There is however, a wealth of objective indicators of
well-being in Scotland other than those that are commonly rehearsed in the
economics literature. These relate to issues such as health, crime and lifestyle.
For example, if the self-assessed well-being data are meaningful, one might
expect to see correlations between these measures and objective measures of
mental health, at least at an aggregate level, and this is what we find.
As well as making a broad assessment of its relation to a variety of
socio-economic indicators, this paper extends the previous literature on
well-being by including information on individuals’ assessments of their
own mental health. It also discusses an extreme manifestation of mental
ill-health – suicide. It also extends research on the association between
individual well-being and social capital. The geographical context for these
developments is Scotland.
Thus we report how Scotland fares in relation to standard indicators such as
the labour force participation rate, employment and unemployment rates,
income inequality, poverty, the performance of its schools as well as to
indicators of health and well-being. Our conclusions are generally pessimistic.
The self-assessed well-being of Scots is lower than that of the English or Welsh,
even after taking into account the differences in the characteristics of the Scots,
Irish and Welsh. Scots also suffer from higher levels of self-assessed depression
or phobia, accidental death and suicide than those in other parts of Great
Britain. This result is particularly driven by outcomes in Strathclyde
3
and is
consistent with the high scores for other measures of social deprivation in
this area.
2
http://www1.eur.nl/fsw/happiness/
3
This is the area of western Scotland centered round Glasgow, Scotland’s largest population
centre.
THE BRAVE SCOTS 167
r2007 The Authors
Journal compilation r2007 Scottish Economic Society
To continue reading
Request your trial