Happiness, Growth, and Public Policy

By Richard A. Easterlin. Social Science Research Network, 2013

221 citations recorded by the source corpus.

If society's goal is to increase people's feelings of well-being, economic growth in itself will not do the job. Full employment and a generous and comprehensive social safety net do increase happiness. Such policies are arguably affordable not only in higher income nations but also in countries that account for most of the population of the less-developed world. These conclusions are suggested by an analysis of a wide range of evidence on happiness in countries throughout the world.

Subfields: General Health Professions, Social Psychology, Sociology and Political Science

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/5580bea257216cafab7dd2446d10538730df95ee

How researchers see this paper

The researchers whose trusted networks rank it highest, strongest advocate first. Every researcher gets a different order.

In General Health Professions

1. Martin E. P. Seligman
2. Saizi Xiao
3. Yong Chen
4. M. Asadullah
5. A. Adler
6. Xiang Li
7. E. Yeoh
8. Sarah Mercer

In Social Psychology

1. A. Adler
2. Martin E. P. Seligman
3. Saizi Xiao
4. Yong Chen
5. M. Asadullah
6. Xiang Li
7. E. Yeoh
8. Willibald F. Ruch

In Sociology and Political Science

1. Martin E. P. Seligman
2. Saizi Xiao
3. Yong Chen
4. M. Asadullah
5. A. Adler
6. Xiang Li
7. E. Yeoh
8. K. Woosnam

Citations in the corpus

• Happiness and Economic Growth: The Evidence (2013, unknown): “The possibility that some other factor(s) such as public policy might account for the happiness differences is not even considered (cf. Easterlin 2013).”
• Using wellbeing for public policy: Theory, measurement, and recommendations (2016, methodology): “Easterlin (2013) revises his initial claim that beyond a certain level of income there is no relationship between income and life satisfaction.”
• Does a happy destination bring you happiness? Evidence from Swiss inbound tourism (2018, background): “It has been well acknowledged in the literature that happiness, or subjective well-being, can be defined by cognitive life satisfaction and affective emotions (Easterlin, 2001, 2004, 2013; Diener, 2000; Nawijn, 2010a; Nawijn et al., 2010).”
• Subjective Well-Being in China, 2005-2010: The Role of Relative Income, Gender and Location (2015, methodology): “However, the level of happiness was much higher in 1990 because of state guaranteed jobs, low unemployment rate, and extensive social safety net provisions (Easterlin et al., 2012; Easterlin, 2013).”