金钱能买来幸福吗?

金钱与幸福感的关系一直是一个古老的命题，无疑，更多的财富会带来幸福感，但幸福感真的只与金钱的多少有关吗？“不患寡而患不均”，看完本文后你可能会有新的认识。

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　　 7:07 Money and Happiness 来自经济学人赏析

Free exchange

自由兑换

Keeping up with the Karumes

跟上卡鲁姆的步伐

A new study shows that money can buy you happiness—but only fleetingly, at others’ expense

一项新研究表明，金钱只能让人在相互攀比中获得稍纵即逝的幸福

Oct 31st 2015 | From the print edition

“WHEN you open the window, both fresh air and flies come in,” said Deng Xiaoping, describing the good and bad consequences of the opening of China’s economy. Most people see economic growth and rising incomes as desirable, but they have their disadvantages. Families break apart, as young people move to the cities. Jobs become more insecure if the labour market is liberalised. Rising inequality may upset even those who are becoming richer. Small wonder, perhaps, that the satisfaction ordinary Chinese expressed with their lot fell at the start of the economic boom sparked by Deng’s reforms, before rising again as growth accelerated. So, at any rate, concluded a study published in 2012 by Richard Easterlin of the University of Southern California and colleagues.

邓小平在阐述中国对外开放这把双刃剑时说道：“打开窗户，新鲜空气会进来，苍蝇也会飞进来。”大多数人都渴望经济增长，收入提高，事实上，这些经济状况也有劣势。当年轻人迁移到城市去寻找工作时，身后的家庭变得支离破碎。劳动力市场自由化，工作也会愈加缺少安全性。即使是对于那些正在走向富裕的人群，越来越多的社会不公也会让他们感到不安。这就难怪普通中国老百姓在邓小平改革初期带动市场繁荣时对自己生活的满意度直线下降；直到后期经济增长加速时，满意度才有所回升。所以，不管怎么说，美国南加州大学理查德伊斯特林（Richard Easterlin）和他的同事们于2012年发表的一项研究也印证了相似的结论。

Mr Easterlin is best known for a hotly contested paper published in 1974, which argued that rising incomes do not make people happier. Ever since, in spite of the obvious benefits, economists have debated whether getting richer is all it’s cracked up to be. The most comprehensive study, published in 2012, looked at a range of countries over time, and concluded that there is a positive relationship between income growth and satisfaction.

伊斯特林先生最著名的研究发表于1974年；该论文中所持的“高收入并不会使人们更快乐”的观点，在当时引起了激烈的争论。从那时起，即使明白当富人具有诸多明显好处，经济学家仍在讨论做富人是否真的像说的那么好。其中最为全面的报告发表于2012年；该报告调查了一段时期内不同国家的情况得出了“收入增长和满意度成正比关系”的结论。

That study did not make clear, however, whether money leads to happiness or happiness to money. Andrew Oswald, Eugenio Proto and Daniel Sgroi of the University of Warwick have posited that happiness comes first. Depressed workers are less productive, after all, and so earn less. In addition, high incomes and happiness may have a common cause. Those with a big network of friends are both more satisfied in life and better at finding well-paid jobs.

然而该研究并没有表明，到底是金钱带来幸福还是幸福创造了财富。来自英国华威大学（the University of Warwick）的安德鲁奥斯瓦德（Andrew Oswald），埃乌杰尼奥普罗托（EugenioProto）和丹尼尔斯格罗伊（Daniel Sgroi）假定是幸福创造了财富。毕竟心情沮丧的工人们工作效率更低，收入也会随之减少。除此之外，高收入和幸福感有着一个共同的原因。有着庞大朋友圈的人们不仅在生活中感到更加满足，并且也更容易找到高薪酬的工作。

One way to answer questions about causality is to look at evidence from randomised trials. Lotteries randomly allocate extra wealth, and so could serve as a focus of study, but in most countries only a small proportion of people buy tickets. The behaviour of those having a flutter may not be typical of people in general, skewing the results. The solution would be for economists to run their own experiments, doling out big jackpots at random among the population. In rich countries it is too expensive to mimic a lottery. But in poorer places some charities already do.

随机试验所提供的证据可以用来回答关于因果关系的问题。彩票对额外的财富进行随机分配，所以可以被用来当作研究的重点，但是在大多数国家，只有一小部分的人会选择购买彩票。这些彩票购买者心情焦躁，并不能代表大众心理，进而会导致调查结果出现偏差。经济学家应自己做实验，在人群中随机发放几笔巨额奖金。在富有国家，模拟彩票发放的成本实在太高。但是在更为贫穷的地方，已经有慈善机构做过这样的实验。

The Busara Centre for Behavioural Economics in Nairobi, Kenya, runs experiments with participants from slums and rural areas. Its researchers looked at the results of a lottery-like scheme in rural Kenya, in which a random sample of 503 households spread over 120 villages was chosen to receive cash transfers of up to $1,525. The average transfer, $357, was almost enough to double the wealth of a typical villager. The researchers measured the well-being of villagers before and after the transfer, using a range of different methods: questionnaires about people’s life satisfaction, screening for clinical depression and saliva tests for cortisol, a hormone associated with stress.

位于肯尼亚，内罗毕的布萨洛行为经济学中心（The Busara Centre forBehavioural Economics）在贫民窟和乡村地区进行了试验。研究人员在120个肯尼亚偏远村庄中随机抽取了503个家庭发放现金，最高金额为1525美元。平均金额为357美元，这已经足够将一位普通村民的财富翻上一番。通过人民生活满意度的调查问卷，筛查临床忧郁症，在唾液中检测皮质醇——一种与压力直接相关的荷尔蒙——等等一系列方法，研究者对现金发放前后村民的幸福感进行了评估。因为并不是所有村民都收到了现金，该实验并未阐明当所有人的财富实现相同增值时会产生怎样的后果。但是该实验的确模拟了经济增长情况下财富的不平均分配。果然不出所料，收到现金的人们在拿到钱后，对其生活表现出了更高的满意度。皮质醇水平和临床抑郁症的发病率也有所下降。

Since not all the villagers received a transfer, the experiment sheds no light on what would happen if everyone’s wealth increased equally. But the study does mimic the distributional results of economic growth, which tends to allot gains unevenly. As expected, those who received transfers reported greater satisfaction with their lot after the money arrived. Cortisol levels and the incidence of depression fell too.

因为并不是所有村民都收到了现金，该实验并未阐明当所有人的财富实现相同增值时会产生怎样的后果。但是该实验的确模拟了经济增长情况下财富的不平均分配。果然不出所料，收到现金的人们在拿到钱后，对其生活表现出了更高的满意度。皮质醇水平和临床抑郁症的发病率也有所下降。

However, the satisfaction of those who did not receive anything fell sharply as their neighbours’ fortunes improved. The decline in satisfaction prompted by seeing one’s peers get $100 richer was bigger than the increase of satisfaction from getting a handout of the same size. The bigger the handouts to others in their village, the greater the dissatisfaction of non-recipients. (The handouts did not seem to have any impact cortisol levels or the prevalence of depression among non-recipients.)

然而，没有收到任何钱的人在看到邻居财富增加后，对生活的满意度大幅下降。目睹同龄人获得了100美元的财富所引起的满意度下跌，远远大于那些因获得同样金额救助金而提高的满意度。村庄里其他人获得的救济金越大，没有获利的人们就越不满意。（救助金本身好像并没有对未获利者的皮质醇水平，或抑郁症发病情况有任何影响）

Both the bitterness and the joy that the windfalls produced were passing. The effects of changes in people’s circumstances wear off as they get used to them—a phenomenon economists call “hedonic adaptation”. The large swings in satisfaction were found in the middle of the transfer scheme. Within about six months, all the transfers had been made (if they had been spread over a longer period, as usually happens when a country develops, the outcome may have been different). A year later the happiness of both the recipients and those who did without had returned close to its initial level.

这笔意外之财所带来的不快和愉悦都在随着时间的推移而减弱。经济学家把这种现象称为“享乐适应”——我们一旦适应了所处环境所发生的变化，就再也不会被这些变化所左右了。现金发放过程中，满意度发生了最大的改变。在六个月之内，所有现金都发放完毕（如果现金发放时间延长，（例如在国家发展过程中）结果可能会不一样。）。一年后，不管是获利者还是非获利者的幸福感已经差不多恢复到了最初的水平。

Moreover, it was not inequality in general that bothered the unlucky, so much as a decline in their own wealth relative to the mean. Participants in the experiment shrugged off changes in the Gini coefficient of their village, which measures overall inequality. Take the example of a village in which one person gets richer, and another gets poorer. The village is less equal, but the mean income is unchanged. In the Kenyan experiment this did not matter to the rest of the village. Instead, participants compared how well everyone else was doing (the village mean) to themselves.

不仅如此，并不是整体上的不公平导致运气较差的人幸福感降低，真正影响幸福感的是个人财富相对村庄财富平均水平的降低。该实验的参与者并不在乎自己村庄基尼系数的变化（该系数能够衡量总体不公水平）。以一个村庄为例，其中一个人变得更富有，而另一个人变得更贫穷。村庄整体收入不公，但是平均收入保持不变。在肯尼亚试验中，这一点对于其余村民来说，并不能说明什么。但参与者反而会将自己与其他所有人（村庄的平均水平）做比较。

Blinded by aspiration

被追求蒙住了眼

A study by Ada Ferrer-i-Carbonell looking at data on life satisfaction from Germany might help explain the Kenyans’ reactions. She concludes that there is an asymmetry in the way people compare themselves with others. We tend to look exclusively at those better off than us, rather than contemplate our position within the full range of outcomes. When the lot of others improves, we react negatively, but when our own lot improves, we shift our reference group to those who are still better off. In other words, we are never satisfied, since we quickly become accustomed to our own achievements. Perhaps that is what spurs people to earn more, and economies to grow.

艾达 费雷尔卡波纳（Ada Ferrer-i-Carbonell）在一项研究中，重点关注了德国生活满意度的数据；这有可能帮助解释肯尼亚人的反应。她认为人们在把自己与他人比较的时候存在着巨大的不对称性。通常情况下，我们只会把目光集中在那些生活比我们优越的人身上，而不是思考我们在整个社会所处的位置。当他人的生活水平有所改善，我们会做出消极的反应；但当我们的命运有所改善时，我们的目光又落在了那些仍比我们富裕的群体上。换句话说，我们永远不可能获得满足，因为我们很快就适应了自己现阶段的成就。或许这种情况才会驱使着我们去赚更多钱，经济也因此增长。

From the print edition: Finance and economics

Translated by: LucyChen

Proofread by: Melanie,Ennis

下载原文音频请访问“译者说-经济学人论坛”：www.translatorcn.org

Word List

1.(it’s) little/no/small/wonder (that): used for showing that you are not surprised by a particular situation or event

e.g. It’s little wonder the children are bored.

2.sb's lot/the lot of sb: the quality of someone's life and the experiences that they have

e.g. They should do something to improve the lot of the lowest-paid workers.

Do you think he's happy with his lot?

3.something is not all it’s cracked up to be: used for saying that something is not as good as people say that it is

e.g. The new restaurant is not all it's cracked up to be. When we went, the service was awful and our food was cold.

4.posit: to suggest that a particular idea should be accepted as a fact

e.g. He posited that each planet moved in a perfect circle.

5.have/make common cause (with/against somebody): to join with other people or groups in order to oppose an enemy

e.g. U.S. officials expect other Western governments to make common cause with them over the arrests.

6.flutter: a feeling of being nervous, confused, or excited

e.g. She was all in a flutter.

7.skew: to cause something to be not straight or exact; to twist or distort

e.g. The company's results for this year are skewed because not all our customers have paid their bills.

8.dole out: If you dole something out, you give a certain amount of it to each member of a group.

e.g. The government has agreed to dole out an additional ￡5 million to schools.

9.screen: to find out information about people in order to decide whether you can trust them

e.g. Police are very careful when screening politicians’ bodyguards.

10.throw/shed/cast/light on something: to provide new information that helps you understand something

e.g. I had hoped that he would be able to shed some light on the problem.

11.wear off: If a feeling or the effect of something wears off, it gradually disappears

e.g. Most patients find that the numbness from the injection wears off after about an hour.

12.shrug off (something) or shrug (something) off: to think of or treat (something) as not important

e.g. I warned him about the storm but he just shrugged it off.

13.Asymmetry is the appearance that something has when its two sides or halves are different in shape, size, or style.

Notes1.关于金钱与幸福水平的关系，可以查看经济学人去年的另一篇文章：

http://www.economist.com/blogs/graphicdetail/2013/05/daily-chart-0

2.金钱是怎样提升幸福水平的？不妨看看下面这个有意思的小视频：