http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/ram/analysis_thu.ram
Some cliché, psychobabble, and the inevitable McFarrin clip, but several interesting bits (note that proper-name spellings are my guess):
* one Dr Nick Bayless (U Cambridge)
> our records only go back to the late 40s and early 50s, and it seems
> there has been no change in the level of happiness. So while most
> things seem to be improving in terms of health provision, homes,
> access to education, and the like, one thing's definitely not
> improving, and that's our sense of happiness and well-being ...
> [All] the good evidence suggests that once you're above the poverty
> line, once you can afford the bare necessities of life, extra income
> is a very poor way of increasing your happiness.
(Don't tell your boss :-) Another view (WHAT CAN ECONOMISTS LEARN
FROM HAPPINESS RESEARCH? Bruno S. Frey and Alois Stutzer, October
2001) is:
http://www.iew.unizh.ch/wp/iewwp080.pdf
> The empirical research on happiness has clearly established that at
> a given point in time, and within a particular country, persons with
> higher income are happier. Over time, however, happiness in western
> countries and Japan does not systematically increase, despite
> considerable growth in real per capita income. This can be
> attributed to the rise in aspiration levels going with increases in
> income. Between countries, and at per capita income levels much
> below the United States, higher average income goes with higher
> average happiness, but the improvements in reported subjective
> well-being seem to be rather small.
* Bhutan seeks to increase "gross national happiness." For more info,
see
http://www.bhutanstudies.org.bt/publications/gnh/gnh.htm
> Research and Publications
> Gross National Happiness
* Religious people are happier. Worse yet:
> Empirically ... fundamentalist religions [sic] are more optimistic
> and less depressive.... Unitarians and reformed Jews are depressed
> ... and orthodox Catholics, Calvinists, and orthodox Muslims are
> optimistic"
* "There's big money ... going into comparative surveys of national
good humor." Rankings are discussed: Ireland, Denmark, Switzerland,
and the Netherlands apparently do well.
* One researcher (Andrew Oswald, U Warwick) claims (tongue in cheek ?)
> No question, I can add to the sum of human happiness by studying
> happiness systematically, using statistics, using some economics ...
> Bit by bit, we're going to learn how to make countries happier by
> studying happiness.
Note that Oswald presented 17th June 2003 at Brookings' event
entitled "Why Inequality Matters: Lessons for Policy from the
Economics of Happiness"
> Research presented by Professor Andrew Oswald from the University of
> Warwick reveals that inequality lowers average happiness on a
> national level and is potentially detrimental to human beings.
> Surveys of employees' wage satisfaction show that people feel
> relatively deprived and less content when their wage is less than
> that of those they compare themselves with, and more satisfied when
> their wage is relatively higher. Wage satisfaction depends not so
> much on how people earn, but on how much people earn in comparison
> with others. Happiness is all about 'keeping up with the Joneses':
> what matters to us is our income relative to others.
> Professor Andrew Oswald from the University of Warwick, said: "Every
> day, journalists and politicians give out the message that better
> economic performance means more happiness for the nation. This idea
> is rarely questioned. We feel that we would be happier if our boss
> raised our pay, but this is certainly not necessarily the case."
> "We know that inequality in countries like Britain and the US has
> gone up enormously and were trying to work out what the true effects
> of inequality are on people. The research evidence coming out of
> this conference is that inequality is bad in the sense that it
> lowers average happiness. It may have some beneficial effect, it may
> sharpen incentives in society, it may make us more productive, but
> the evidence indicates that inequality is harmful."
Topic for empirics: do neoclassical capitalist (NCC) policies maximize GNH? For that matter, does belief in NCC optimize personal happiness? (Pro: fundamentalists are happier. Con: economics' reputation for dismalness. Dunno if economists are actually more depressive, but, IIRC, studies show studying economics makes one a nastier person. Was in LBO or one of Henwood's books? Are there already results on the larger topic of the happiness of economists?) Extra points for ranking NCC against other production-centric ideologies, e.g. various flavors of Marxism. All you ABDs out there, back to work :-)