Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/36872 
Year of Publication: 
2010
Series/Report no.: 
IZA Discussion Papers No. 4850
Publisher: 
Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA), Bonn
Abstract: 
Over the last decades, empirical research on subjective well-being in the social sciences has provided a major new stimulus to the discourse on individual happiness. Recently this research has also been linked to economics where reported subjective wellbeing is often taken as a proxy measure for individual welfare. In our review, we intend to provide an evaluation of where the economic research on happiness stands and of three directions it might develop. First, it offers new ways for testing the basic assumptions of the economic approach and for going about a new understanding of utility. Second, it provides a new possibility for the complementary testing of theories across fields in economics. Third, we inquire how the insights gained from the study of individual happiness in economics affect public policy.
Subjects: 
Economics
happiness
life satisfaction
survey data
income
public goods
unemployment
JEL: 
A10
D60
H41
I31
Document Type: 
Working Paper

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