幸福经济学相关著作

What is this book about?

Richard Easterlin is known as a founder of the economics of happiness. He noticed something puzzling: at any one moment, people with higher incomes tend to be happier, yet as a country's income rises over time, average happiness does not rise proportionally. This Easterlin paradox became a starting point for happiness economics and opened a long debate about the relation between income, institutions, and subjective well-being. The entry gathers his work on that puzzle and its policy implications.

Why read it?

It challenges, with empirical data, the cult of GDP and the assumption that more money means more happiness: growth does improve living conditions, but it does not necessarily raise subjective well-being in step. For readers interested in public policy, and in re-weighing what is worth pursuing, it is an important line of thought — and it explains why happiness became a formal subject in economics.

Core Ideas

• The Easterlin paradox: over the long run, a country's economic growth does not move in step with its people's happiness.
• At a given moment, higher earners are happier — but that does not mean overall income growth raises overall happiness.
• More income does not convert proportionally into more happiness, so money's marginal effect on well-being is limited.
• Health, family relationships, and social security contribute far more to happiness than the accumulation of income.

What questions does this book try to answer?

• Why have people not become happier as wealth has grown?
• If income is not the only source of happiness, where should policy and individuals focus instead?

Who should read it?

For economics researchers, readers interested in happiness studies and public policy, and general readers who want to understand the actual link between money and happiness. It reads more like a research overview than an inspirational book, so some familiarity with basic economic concepts helps.

How to Read It

This entry corresponds not to one book but to Easterlin's body of work on the economics of happiness; the core finding first appeared in his 1974 paper, roughly "Does Economic Growth Improve the Human Lot?". Two things to hold on to: distinguish the cross-sectional comparison (at one moment, the richer are happier) from the time-series comparison (as a country grows richer, average happiness need not rise); and note that health, family relationships, and social security contribute far more to happiness than income accumulation.