What can economists learn from happiness research
Bruno S. Frey,Alois Stutzer +1 more
TLDR
In this paper, the authors argue that reported subjective well-being is a satisfactory empirical approximation to individual utility and that happiness research is able to contribute important insights for economics, and report how the economic variables income, unemployment and inflation affect happiness as well as institutional factors, in particular the type of democracy and the extent of government decentralization, systematically influence how satisfied individuals are with their life.Abstract:
In recent years, there has been a steadily increasing interest on the part of economists in happiness research. We argue that reported subjective well-being is a satisfactory empirical approximation to individual utility and that happiness research is able to contribute important insights for economics. We report how the economic variables income, unemployment and inflation affect happiness as well as how institutional factors, in particular the type of democracy and the extent of government decentralization, systematically influence how satisfied individuals are with their life. We discuss some of the consequences for economic policy and for economic theory.read more
Citations
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Report by the commission on the measurement of economic performance and social progress
TL;DR: As a measure of market capacity and not economic well-being, the authors pointed out that the two can lead to misleading indications about how well-off people are and entail the wrong policy decisions.
Journal ArticleDOI
Relative income, happiness, and utility : an explanation for the Easterlin paradox and other puzzles
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors review the evidence on relative income from the subjective well-being literature and discuss the relation (or not) between happiness and utility, and discuss some nonhappiness research (behavioral, experimental, neurological) related to income comparisons.
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Beyond Money Toward an Economy of Well-Being
Ed Diener,Martin E. P. Seligman +1 more
TL;DR: It is argued that economic indicators were extremely important in the early stages of economic development, when the fulfillment of basic needs was the main issue and differences in well-being are less frequently due to income, and are more frequentlyDue to factors such as social relationships and enjoyment at work.
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The social context of well-being.
TL;DR: This work confirms that social capital is strongly linked to subjective well-being through many independent channels and in several different forms, both directly and through their impact on health.
Journal ArticleDOI
Preferences over Inflation and Unemployment: Evidence from Surveys of Happiness
TL;DR: Di Tella et al. as mentioned in this paper showed that the costs of inflation in terms of unemployment can be measured by the relative size of the weights attached to these variables in social well-being.
References
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Journal ArticleDOI
A Pure Theory of Local Expenditures
TL;DR: The authors show that the Musgrave-Samuelson analysis, which is valid for federal expenditures, need not apply to local expenditures, and restate the assumptions made by Musgrave and Samuelson and the central problems with which they deal.
Journal ArticleDOI
A theory of fairness, competition and cooperation
Ernst Fehr,Klaus M. Schmidt +1 more
TL;DR: This paper showed that if some people care about equity, the puzzles can be resolved and that the economic environment determines whether the fair types or the selesh types dominate equilibrium behavior in cooperative games.
Book ChapterDOI
Subjective Well-being
TL;DR: The literature on subjective well-being (SWB), including happiness, life satisfaction, and positive affect, is reviewed in this article in three areas: measurement, causal factors, and theory.
Book
The Theory of the Leisure Class
TL;DR: The Pecuniary standard of living is defined in this paper as "conspicuous leisure, conspicuous consumption, and higher learning as an expression of the pecuniary culture".