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Journal ArticleDOI

Happiness And Health: Lessons—And Questions—For Public Policy

Carol Graham
- 01 Jan 2008 - 
- Vol. 27, Iss: 1, pp 72-87
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TLDR
The happiness-health relationship from an economics perspective is reviewed, highlighting the role of adaptation and how happiness surveys can-and cannot-inform public health policy.
Abstract
This paper reviews the happiness-health relationship from an economics perspective, highlighting the role of adaptation People’s expectations for health standards influence their reported health and associated happiness, a finding that roughly mirrors the Easterlin paradox in income and happiness Research on unhappiness and obesity shows that norms and stigma vary a great deal across countries and cohorts, mediating the related well-being costs Better understanding this variance and its effects on incentives for addressing the condition is important to policy design More generally, the paper discusses how happiness surveys can—and cannot—inform public health policy

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Citations
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Journal ArticleDOI

Is Well-being U-Shaped over the Life Cycle?

TL;DR: In this paper, the authors present evidence that psychological well-being is U-shaped through life and that a typical individual's happiness reaches its minimum - on both sides of the Atlantic and for both males and females - in middle age.
ReportDOI

Economic Growth and Subjective Well-Being: Reassessing the Easterlin Paradox

TL;DR: For example, the authors showed that the relationship between changes in subjective well-being and income over time within countries, and found economic growth associated with a rising happiness, indicating a clear role for absolute income and a more limited role for relative income comparisons in determining happiness.
Journal ArticleDOI

Economic Growth and Subjective Well-Being: Reassessing the Easterlin Paradox

TL;DR: In this article, the authors re-assess the "Easterlin paradox" and find no evidence of a satiation point beyond which wealthier countries have no further increases in subjective well-being.
Book

Obesity and the Economics of Prevention: Fit Not Fat

Franco Sassi
TL;DR: It is argued that efforts to prevent obesity and related chronic diseases can provide the means to increase social welfare and enhance health equity, relative to a situation in which chronic diseases are simply treated once they emerge.
Journal ArticleDOI

Advances and Open Questions in the Science of Subjective Well-Being

TL;DR: This review provides an overview of many major areas of research, including the measurement of subjective well-being, the demographic and personality-based predictors of SWB, and process-oriented accounts of individual differences in SWB.
References
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Journal ArticleDOI

The Spread of Obesity in a Large Social Network over 32 Years

TL;DR: Network phenomena appear to be relevant to the biologic and behavioral trait of obesity, and obesity appears to spread through social ties, which has implications for clinical and public health interventions.
Book ChapterDOI

Does Economic Growth Improve the Human Lot? Some Empirical Evidence

TL;DR: In this article, the authors discuss the association of income and happiness and suggest a Duesenberry-type model, involving relative status considerations as an important determinant of happiness.
Posted Content

What Can Economists Learn from Happiness Research

TL;DR: The authors report how the economic variables income, unemployment and inflation affect happiness and how institutional factors, in particular the type of democracy and the extent of government decentralization, systematically influence how satisfied individuals are with their life.
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