The Economics of Happiness: How the Easterlin Paradox Transformed Our Understanding of Well-Being and Progress

Description

This book presents a panoramic view of the implications from Richard Easterlin’s groundbreaking work on happiness and economics. Contributions in the book show the relevance of the Easterlin Paradox to main areas, such as the relationship between income and happiness, the relationship between economic growth and well-being, conceptions of progress and development, design and evaluation of policies for well-being, and the use of happiness research to address welfare economics issues. This book is unique in the sense that it gathers contributions from senior and top researchers in the economics of happiness, whom have played a central role in the consolidation of happiness economics, as well as promising young scholars, showing the current dynamism and consolidation of happiness economics. Front Matter ....Pages i-xxvi Front Matter ....Pages 1-1 The Relevance of Richard A. Easterlin’s Groundbreaking Work. A Historical Perspective (Mariano Rojas)....Pages 3-24 Front Matter ....Pages 25-25 Different Versions of the Easterlin Paradox: New Evidence for European Countries (Caspar F. Kaiser, Maarten C. M. Vendrik)....Pages 27-55 Lottery Wins and Satisfaction: Overturning Brickman in Modern Longitudinal Data on Germany (Andrew J. Oswald, Rainer Winkelmann)....Pages 57-84 Relative Income, Subjective Wellbeing and the Easterlin Paradox: Intra- and Inter-national Comparisons (Arthur Grimes, Marc Reinhardt)....Pages 85-105 Relative Income and Happiness in Latin America: Implications for Inequality Debates (Mariano Rojas)....Pages 107-126 Front Matter ....Pages 127-127 Does Happiness Improve Welfare Economics a Lot? (Gabriel Leite Mota)....Pages 129-156 Why the Easterlin Paradox? The Scitovsky Hypothesis (Maurizio Pugno)....Pages 157-170 Homo Economicus and Happiness: Towards More Sustainable Development (Martin Binder)....Pages 171-191 Front Matter ....Pages 193-193 Distaste for Inequality? The Role of Risk Aversion (Ada Ferrer-i-Carbonell, Xavier Ramos)....Pages 195-215 Advertising as a Major Source of Human Dissatisfaction: Cross-National Evidence on One Million Europeans (Chloe Michel, Michelle Sovinsky, Eugenio Proto, Andrew J. Oswald)....Pages 217-239 What Makes for a Good Job? Evidence Using Subjective Wellbeing Data (Christian Krekel, George Ward, Jan-Emmanuel De Neve)....Pages 241-268 Front Matter ....Pages 269-269 Unhappiness as an Engine of Economic Growth (Stefano Bartolini)....Pages 271-301 Keynes’ Grandchildren and Easterlin’s Paradox: What Is Keeping Us from Reducing Our Working Hours? (Johannes Hirata)....Pages 303-317 Using Well-Being Metrics to Assess Social Well-Being and Ill-Being: Lessons from Rising Mortality Rates in the United States (Carol Graham, Sergio Pinto)....Pages 319-353 When Does Economic Growth Improve Well-Being? (Francesco Sarracino)....Pages 355-370 The Subjective Well-Being Political Paradox: Evidence from Latin America (Lucía Macchia, Anke C. Plagnol)....Pages 371-384 Front Matter ....Pages 385-385 Born to Be Mild? Cohort Effects Don’t (Fully) Explain Why Well-Being Is U-Shaped in Age (Andrew E. Clark)....Pages 387-408 Happiness Amongst Teens in Australia (Tony Beatton, Paul Frijters)....Pages 409-437 Do Humans Suffer a Psychological Low in Midlife? Two Approaches (With and Without Controls) in Seven Data Sets (David G. Blanchflower, Andrew J. Oswald)....Pages 439-453 Happiness at Different Ages: The Social Context Matters (John F. Helliwell, Haifang Huang, Max B. Norton, Shun Wang)....Pages 455-481