Economist's Lessons on Happiness

Economist's Lessons on Happiness Synopsis

Once called the "e;dismal science,"e; economics now offers prescriptions for improving people's happiness. In this book Richard Easterlin, the "e;father of happiness economics,"e; draws on a half-century of his own research and that conducted by fellow economists and psychologists to answer in plain language questions like: Can happiness be measured? Will more money make me happier?

What about finding a partner? Getting married? Having a baby?

More exercise? Does religion help? Who is happier-women or men, young or old, rich or poor?

How does happiness change as we go through different stages of life? Public policy is also in the mix:

• Can the government increase people's happiness? 
• Should 
• the government increase their happiness? Which countries are the happiest and why? Does a country need to be rich to be happy? Does economic growth improve the human lot? Some of the answers are surprising (no, more money won't do the trick
• neither will economic growth
• babies are a mixed blessing!), but they are all based on reason and well-vetted evidence from the fields of economics and psychology. In closing, Easterlin traces the genesis of the ongoing "e
• Happiness Revolution"e
• and considers its implications for people's lives down the road