Happiness Studies: Ways to Improve Comparability and Some Public Policy Implications*

Abstract

Recent happiness studies by psychologists, sociologists and economists have produced many interesting results. These have important implications, including the need to focus less on purely objective (including economic) variables and more on subjective well‐being. In particular, the focus on GDP should be supplemented (if not replaced) by more acceptable national success indicators such as the environmentally responsible happy nation index. Welfare economics and cost–benefit analysis that are currently based on economic factors (which are in turn based on preferences) should be revised to be based on happiness or welfare. Public spending on areas important for welfare should be preferred over private consumption that is largely no longer important for long‐term welfare at the social level. Public policy should put more emphasis (than suggested by existing economic analysis) on factors more important for happiness than economic production and consumption, including employment, environmental quality, equality, health and safety. Above all, scientific advance in general and in brain stimulation and genetic engineering in particular may offer the real breakthroughs against the biological or psychological limitations on happiness. Some simple ways to improve the accuracy and comparability (including interpersonal) of happiness measurement are suggested: pinning down the level of neutrality, recognising the possible nonlinear scale used in self‐reports, and using the just perceivable increment of pleasure as the interpersonally comparable unit.

Migration, Openness and the Global Preconditions of ‘Smart Development

“…This study analyzed the effects of independent variables including dietary factors, medical resource availability, gross national product (GNP/capita), literacy rates, growth in the labor force, and provision of sanitation facilities and safe water on infant and maternal mortality rates and life expectancy at birth. The study fitted a series of general linear models for each of the three dependent variables 8 Since our article does not feature primarily on ecological footprint, but on a variety of measures of 'smart development', which are mathematically derived from the logic of the Happy Planet Index (see also Ng, 2008a and2008b;Veenhoven, 1996), it suffices to say here that ecological footprint (g ha /cap) . 9 , is indeed a one-catch all-indicator of ecological strain, caused by human activity.…”

Some Conceptual and Methodological Issues on Happiness: Lessons From Evolutionary Biology

“…Thus, even if happiness is intrinsically cardinal as assumed in this paragraph, the method of using the 0-10 range does not give in general a fully cardinal index, though it probably gives more information than a purely ordinal ranking. This partially cardinal nature of the commonly used measure does not seem to have been explored in the literature (e.g., Kristoffersen, 2010;Stevens, 1975), though (Ng, 2008) tries to capture the likely relationship between actual net happiness and reports restricted to 0-10 by an arc-tangent curve.…”

“…Oswald and Wu (2010) provide an "objective confirmation of subjective measures of human well-being" by using the orthodox economists' method of compensating differentials. Benjamin et al (2014) propose the use of some 'fundamental aspects', but it may be an overwhelming difficulty in avoiding overlapping (see also Ng, 2008).…”

Subjective Well-Being, Income and Relative Concerns in the UK

“…Thus, cardinal utility is necessary." (Ng, 2008). Ferrer-i Carbonell and Frijters (2004), instead, produce evidence that the assumption of cardinality of life satisfaction scores has a negligible impact on empirical results.…”