Beyond Income: Subjective Well-Being and Rural Transformation in Asia (Contributions to Economics)

This Open Access book offers a new perspective for understanding rural transformation by moving beyond traditional income-based measures of development. It demonstrates that improvements in income alone do not necessarily lead to better lives in rural Asia and that subjective well-being—reflected in people’s happiness, life satisfaction, and mental health—provides a richer lens for evaluating development outcomes. Drawing on empirical studies across Asian economies, the book examines how economic activities, social conditions, and institutional contexts shape rural well-being. Topics range from agricultural productivity and farmers’ happiness to the well-being implications of off-farm employment, clean energy transitions, sanitation improvements, aging and mental health, early-life experiences, and women’s empowerment. Drawing on household surveys, cross-country datasets, and advanced econometric methods, the chapters reveal that rural well-being is shaped by a complex interplay of economic, social, environmental, and institutional factors. The findings show that policies related to rural employment, infrastructure, energy transitions, and social inclusion influence not only material living standards but also individuals’ perceptions of their lives. By integrating insights from agricultural economics, development studies, and well-being research, this book advances a deeper understanding of how rural development policies affect human welfare and offers new directions for promoting inclusive and sustainable rural development in Asia.

Wanglin Ma is a Full Professor of Applied Economics at the Department of Global Value Chains and Trade, Faculty of Agribusiness and Commerce, Lincoln University, New Zealand. His research spans agricultural and development economics, with a strong emphasis on identifying strategies that enhance farm performance, strengthen the sustainability of the agrifood systems, improve household welfare and farmers’ subjective well-being, and promote sustainable rural and agricultural development. He earned his PhD in Agricultural Economics from the University of Kiel, Germany, and has authored more than 160 articles in leading international journals.

Dil Rahut is Vice Chair of Research at the Asian Development Bank Institute (ADBI). He was a Sr. Global Program Manager for the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Centre’s (CIMMYT). He also worked in the Research and Statistics Department of the Royal Monetary Authority of Bhutan, the WorldFish Centre as a senior fellow and Japan chair at the Indian Council for Research in International Economic Relations, chief of research, planning, and monitoring at the Bank of Bhutan Ltd, and assistant professor of development economics at South Asian University. He has a Ph.D. in development economics from the University of Bonn’s Center for Development Research, Germany. He has over 260 peer-reviewed publications in Scopus-indexed journals and several books focusing on development issues.

Tetsushi Sonobe is a professor of economics at the National Graduate Institute for Policy Studies (GRIPS), a public policy school in Tokyo, and the president of the Japanese Association for Development Economics (JADE). Previously, he was Dean and CEO of the Asian Development Bank Institute (ADBI), Vice President of GRIPS, and professor at GRIPS and Tokyo Metropolitan University. In 2023, he served as the chairperson of T7, the think-tank engagement group of the G7.