Catalogue Search | MBRL
Are you sure you want to remove the book from the shelf?
{{itemTitle}}
9,467
result(s) for
"Happiness economics"
Sort by:
The psychology of money and public finance
\"This book features the main papers of Gunter Schmolders (1903-1991), a pioneer in economic psychology, for the first time in the English language.\"--Jacket.
Book
Happiness and Economics
Curiously, economists, whose discipline has much to do with human well-being, have shied away from factoring the study of happiness into their work. Happiness, they might say, is an ''unscientific'' concept. This is the first book to establish empirically the link between happiness and economics--and between happiness and democracy. Two respected economists, Bruno S. Frey and Alois Stutzer, integrate insights and findings from psychology, where attempts to measure quality of life are well-documented, as well as from sociology and political science. They demonstrate how micro- and macro-economic conditions in the form of income, unemployment, and inflation affect happiness. The research is centered on Switzerland, whose varying degrees of direct democracy from one canton to another, all within a single economy, allow for political effects to be isolated from economic effects.
Not surprisingly, the authors confirm that unemployment and inflation nurture unhappiness. Their most striking revelation, however, is that the more developed the democratic institutions and the degree of local autonomy, the more satisfied people are with their lives. While such factors as rising income increase personal happiness only minimally, institutions that facilitate more individual involvement in politics (such as referendums) have a substantial effect. For countries such as the United States, where disillusionment with politics seems to be on the rise, such findings are especially significant. By applying econometrics to a real-world issue of general concern and yielding surprising results, Happiness and Economics promises to spark healthy debate over a wide range of the social sciences.
eBook
Measuring Happiness
Can money buy happiness? Is income a reliable measure for life satisfaction? In the West after World War II, happiness seemed inextricably connected to prosperity. Beginning in the 1960s, however, other values began to gain ground: peace, political participation, civil rights, environmentalism. \"Happiness economics\" -- a somewhat incongruous-sounding branch of what has been called \"the dismal science\" -- has taken up the puzzle of what makes people happy, conducting elaborate surveys in which people are asked to quantify their satisfaction with \"life in general.\" In this book, three economists explore the happiness-prosperity connection, investigating how economists measure life satisfaction and well-being.The authors examine the evolution of happiness research, considering the famous \"Easterlin Paradox,\" which found that people's average life satisfaction didn't seem to depend on their income. But they question whether happiness research can measure what needs to be measured. They argue that we should not assess people's well-being on a \"happiness scale,\" because that necessarily obscures true social progress. Instead, rising income should be understood as increasing opportunities and alleviating scarcity. Economic growth helps societies to sustain freedom and to finance social welfare programs. In this respect, high income may not buy happiness with life in general, but it gives individuals the opportunity to be healthier, better educated, better clothed, and better fed, to live longer, and to live well.
eBook
Economics of happiness
This book focuses on what makes people happy. The author explains methods for measuring subjective life satisfaction and well-being by discussing economic and sociodemographic factors, as well as the psychological, cultural and political dimensions of personal happiness. Does higher income increase happiness? Are people in rich countries, such as the United States, the United Kingdom and Scandinavian countries, happier than those living elsewhere? Does losing one's job make one unhappy? What is the role of genetic endowments inherited from our parents? How important are physical and emotional health to subjective life satisfaction? Do older people tend to be happier, or younger people? Are close social relationships necessary for happiness? Do political conditions, such as respect for human rights, democracy and autonomy, play a part? How can governments contribute to the population's happiness? This book answers these questions on the basis of extensive interdisciplinary research reflecting the current state of knowledge. The book will appeal to anyone interested in learning more about the various dimensions of personal well-being beyond the happiness-prosperity connection, as well as to policymakers looking for guidance on how to improve happiness in societies.
Book
Happiness explained : what human flourishing is and what we can do to promote it
Offers a response to one of the oldest questions known to humankind namely, what is happiness and how can we ensure that communities are flourishing, happy places for people to live and work?.
eBook
Developments in the Measurement of Subjective Well-Being
Direct reports of subjective well-being may have a useful role in the measurement of consumer preferences and social welfare, if they can be done in a credible way. Can well-being be measured by a subjective survey, even approximately? In this paper, we discuss research on how individuals' responses to subjective well-being questions vary with their circumstances and other factors. We will argue that it is fruitful to distinguish among different conceptions of utility rather than presume to measure a single, unifying concept that motivates all human choices and registers all relevant feelings and experiences. While various measures of well-being are useful for some purposes, it is important to recognize that subjective well-being measures features of individuals' perceptions of their experiences, not their utility as economists typically conceive of it. Those perceptions are a more accurate gauge of actual feelings if they are reported closer to the time of, and in direct reference to, the actual experience. We conclude by proposing the U-index, a misery index of sorts, which measures the proportion of time that people spend in an unpleasant state, and has the virtue of not requiring a cardinal conception of individuals' feelings.
Journal Article
The politics of happiness
During the past forty years, thousands of studies have been carried out on the subject of happiness. Some have explored the levels of happiness or dissatisfaction associated with typical daily activities, such as working, seeing friends, or doing household chores. Others have tried to determine the extent to which income, family, religion, and other factors are associated with the satisfaction people feel about their lives. The Gallup organization has begun conducting global surveys of happiness, and several countries are considering publishing periodic reports on the growth or decline of happiness among their people. One nation, tiny Bhutan, has actually made \"Gross National Happiness\" the central aim of its domestic policy. How might happiness research affect government policy in the United States--and beyond? In The Politics of Happiness, former Harvard president Derek Bok examines how governments could use the rapidly growing research data on what makes people happy--in a variety of policy areas to increase well-being and improve the quality of life for all their citizens.
eBook