Speaker：刘烁（Shuo Liu）

Title：Happy Times: Measuring Happiness Using Response Times

Schedule: Sep 7, TH 1:30-3:00 PM

Location: 诚明楼 (Chengming Hall）RM 315

 

Introduction: 刘烁，北京大学光华管理学院应用经济学系副教授。2019年毕业于瑞士苏黎世大学经济系，获经济学博士学位。目前主要研究领域为产业与组织经济学，博弈论，以及机制设计理论。研究成果发表或即将发表于国内外知名学术期刊，如 Theoretical Economics, Journal of Economic Theory, Economic Journal, RAND Journal of Economics，Games and Economic Behavior ，《经济学》（季刊）等。主持国家自科优秀青年基金。

 

Abstract: Surveys that measure subjective states like happiness or preferences often generate discrete ordinal data. Ordered response models, which are commonly used to analyze such data, suffer from an identification problem. Their conclusions depend strongly on assumptions about the distribution of a latent variable. In this paper, we propose using survey response times to solve that problem. Response times contain information about the distribution of the latent variable even among subjects who give the same survey response, through a chronometric effect. Using an online survey, we test and verify the existence of the chronometric effect. We then provide theoretical conditions that allow us to test conventional distributional assumptions. While these assumptions are rejected in some cases, overall our evidence seems to be consistent with the qualitative validity of the coefficients estimated using the conventional model.