Happiness Quantified

How do we measure happiness? Focusing on subjective measures as a proxy for welfare and well-being, this book finds ways to do that. Subjective measures have been used by psychologists, sociologists, political scientists, and, more recently, economists to answer a variety of scientifically and politically relevant questions. Van Praag, a pioneer in this field since 1971, and Ferrer-i-Carbonell present in this book a generally applicable methodology for the analysisof subjective satisfaction. Drawing on a range of surveys on people's satisfaction with their jobs, income, housing, marriages, and government policy, among other areas of life, this book shows howsatisfaction with life "as a whole" is an aggregate of these domain satisfactions. Using German, British, Dutch, and Russian data, the authors cover a wide range of topics, even some not usually considered part of economic study.The book makes a distinction between actual satisfaction levels and individual norms, and in this way complements Van Praag's earlier work within the Leyden School with his later work in "happiness research". Among the many topics covered, the authorsdiscuss: individuals' memory and anticipation processes and the estimation of adaptation phenomena (how individuals adapt to changing circumstances); the effect of reference groups on income norms andsatisfaction with income; the importance of climate for well-being, including the development of a climate-equivalence index; the trade-offs between chronic diseases and income when well-being is kept constant; the damage of aircraft noise on well-being; the construction of a new talent tax tariff; and inequality from a satisfaction perspective, including the definition of "satisfaction inequalities", a natural extension of income inequality and poverty.This groundbreaking bookpresents new and fruitful methodology that consitutes a welcome addition to the social sciences.

“"Timely...this is a real book, with a great homogeneity in terms of issues and method."--Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization”

The book constitutes an important contribution to the economics of happiness, in particular because of its rigorous econometric techniques. Its approach will be appealing for economists and for all those social scientists interested in quantitative analysis. Journal of Happiness Studies This book is timely, coming in themiddle of anupsurge of interest in happiness, satisfaction, and other measures of utility-related concepts. Journal of Economic Behaviour and Organization 2006

B. M. S. van Praag studied econometrics at the University of Amsterdam where he defended his dissertation on "Individual Welfare and the Theory of Consumer Behaviour" cum laude in 1968. Between 1969 and 1992 he held consecutive positions as Professor at the Free University of Brussels, Associate Professor at Erasmus University, Rotterdam, Professor of Economics at the University of Leiden, and Professor at Erasmus University. In 1992 he was appointed Professor inApplied Economic Research at the University of Amsterdam and Managing Director of the Foundation for Economic Research. In 2000 he became University Professor at the University of Amsterdam. He was thefounding president of the European Society for Population Economics, and has been co-editor of the Journal of Population Economics, a member of the Dutch Social Economic Council, and a member of the Dutch Scientific Council for Government Policy. Ada Ferrer-i-Carbonell graduated in Economics at the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona in 1994. In 1997 she received a Fulbright scholarship to do graduate studies at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI) (Troy, NY, USA), where she obtained anM.S. in Economics. In 1999 she joined the Faculty of Economics and Econometrics at the University of Amsterdam and the Tinbergen Institute Amsterdam, where in 2003 she obtained her PhD on applied welfareeconomics supervised by B.M.S. van Praag. In the same year, she obtained a second PhD on ecological economics from RPI. She currently works for the Amsterdam Institute for Advanced Labour Studies at the University of Amsterdam.

How do we measure happiness? Focusing on subjective measures as a proxy for welfare and well-being, this book finds ways to do that. Subjective measures have been used by psychologists, sociologists, political scientists, and, more recently, economists to answer a variety of scientifically and politically relevant questions. Van Praag, a pioneer in this field since 1971, and Ferrer-i-Carbonell present in this book a generally applicable methodology for the analysis of subjective satisfaction. Drawing on a range of surveys on people's satisfaction with their jobs, income, housing, marriages, and government policy, among other areas of life, this book shows how satisfaction with life "as a whole" is an aggregate of these domain satisfactions. Using German, British, Dutch, and Russian data, the authors cover a wide range of topics, even some not usually considered part of economic study.The book makes a distinction between actual satisfaction levels and individual norms, and in this way complements Van Praag's earlier work within the Leyden School with his later work in "happiness research". Among the many topics covered, the authors discuss: individuals' memory and anticipation processes and the estimation of adaptation phenomena (how individuals adapt to changing circumstances); the effect of reference groups on income norms and satisfaction with income; the importance of climate for well-being, including the development of a climate-equivalence index; the trade-offs between chronic diseases and income when well-being is kept constant; the damage of aircraft noise on well-being; the construction of a new talent tax tariff; and inequality from a satisfaction perspective, including the definition of "satisfaction inequalities", a natural extension of income inequality and poverty.This groundbreaking book presents new and fruitful methodology that consitutes a welcome addition to the social sciences.

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