This book is a welcome consolidation and extension of the recent expanding debates on happiness and economics. Happiness and economics, as a new field for research, is now of pivotal interest particularly to welfare economists and psychologists.

Exploring the modern approach to the economics of happiness, which came about with the Easterlin Paradox, this book analyses and assesses the idea that as a country gets richer the happiness of its citizens remains the same. The book moves through three distinct pillars of study in the field: first analysing the historical and philosophical foundations of the debate; then the methodological and measurements issues and their political implications; and finally empirical applications and discussion about what determines a happy life.

This book presents a panoramic view of the implications from Richard Easterlin’s groundbreaking work on happiness and economics. Contributions in the book show the relevance of the Easterlin Paradox to main areas, such as the relationship between income and happiness, the relationship between economic growth and well-being, conceptions of progress and development, design and evaluation of policies for well-being, and the use of happiness research to address welfare economics issues. This book is unique in the sense that it gathers contributions from senior and top researchers in the economics of happiness, whom have played a central role in the consolidation of happiness economics, as well as promising young scholars, showing the current dynamism and consolidation of happiness economics.

This book presents original happiness research from and about a region that shows unexpectedly high levels of happiness. Even when Latin American countries cannot be classified as high-income countries their population do enjoy, on average, high happiness levels. The book draws attention to some important factors that contribute to the happiness of people, such as: relational values, human relations, solidarity networks, the role of the family, and the availability and gratifying using of leisure time. In a world where happiness is acquiring greater relevance as a final social and personal aim both the academic community and the social-actors and policy-makers community would benefit from Happiness Research in Latin America.

Offering a thorough assessment of recent developments in the economic literature on happiness and quality of life, this major research Handbook astutely considers both methods of estimation and policy application. Luigino Bruni and Pier Luigi Porta’s refreshing, and constructively critical, approach emphasizes the subject’s integral impact on latter-day capitalism. Expert contributors critically present in-depth research on a wide range of topics including: • the history of the idea of quality of life and the impact of globalization • links between happiness and health • comparisons between hedonic and eudaimonic well-being • the relational and emotional side of human life, including subjective indicators of well-being • genetic and environmental contributions to life satisfaction • the impact of culture, fine arts and new media. Accessible and far-reaching, the Handbook of Research Methods and Applications in Happiness and Quality of Life will prove an invaluable resource for students and scholars of welfare and economics as well as practicing psychologists and researchers.

For a long time, economic research on Africa was not seen as a profitable venture intellectually or professionally-few researchers in top-ranked institutions around the world chose to become experts in the field. This was understandable: the reputation of Africa-centered economic research was not enhanced by the well-known limitations of economic data across the continent. Moreover, development economics itself was not always fashionable, and the broader discipline of economics has had its ups and downs, and has been undergoing a major identity crisis because it failed to predict the Great Recession. Times have changed: many leading researchers-including a few Nobel laureates-have taken the subject of Africa and economics seriously enough to devote their expertise and creativity to it. They have been amply rewarded: the richness, complexities, and subtleties of African societies, civilizations, rationalities, and ways of living, have helped renew the humanities and the social sciences-and economics in particular-to the point that the continent has become the next major intellectual frontier to researchers from around the world. In collecting some of the most authoritative statements about the science of economics and its concepts in the African context, this ^lhandbook (the first of two volumes) opens up the diverse acuity of commentary on exciting topics, and in the process challenges and stimulates the quest for knowledge. Wide-ranging in its scope, themes, language, and approaches, this volume explores, examines, and assesses economic thinking on Africa, and Africa's contribution to the discipline. The editors bring a set of powerful resources to this endeavor, most notably a team of internationally-renowned economists whose diverse viewpoints are complemented by the perspectives of philosophers, political scientists, and anthropologists.

With the rise of modern behavioural economics and increasing interest in subjective well-being research, the question of the relationship between economics and psychology has again been brought to the fore. Drawing on the history of economic thought, this book explores the historical relationship between the two disciplines. The book opens with a description of the primary philosophical foundations for early arguments supporting the interplay between economics and psychology. Both classical economists and other prominent pre-marginalists writers are examined in this context. The ensuing discussion explores the marginalist revolution and how well-known economists like Jevons and Edgeworth, influenced by pre-marginalist writers, incorporated ideas and findings from psychology. The book then describes how, following the so-called “Paretian turn”, early neoclassical economists attempted to expel psychological concepts from economic analysis. Combined with the increasing formalization, the influence of the classical physics scientific ideal, and the impact of positivism, this methodological stance became dominant in modern mainstream economics. In contrast, non-mainstream traditions continued to acknowledge the significance of psychology in their economic analysis. Thistradition includes inter alia the so-called old behavioural economics, mainly of Herbert Simon and George Katona. The revival of psychology in economics came mainly with the emergence and development of new behavioural economics as a distinct branch during the last few decades. The trend was further assisted by the emergence of the economics of subjective well-being. Finally, the book briefly explores the state of the current debate concerning the relationship between economics and psychology. This book will be invaluable reading to anyone interested in the history of the study of economics and psychology, as well as of great interest to students and scholars of history of economic thought, psychological economics, behavioural economics and the history and philosophy of social sciences.

This insightful Modern Guide explores heterodox approaches to modern wellbeing research, with a specific focus on how wellbeing is understood and practised, exploring policies and actions which are taken to shape wellbeing. It evaluates contemporary trends in wellbeing research, including the sometimes competing definitions, methods and approaches offered by different disciplinary perspectives.

The aim of the Handbook of Social Indicators and Quality of Life Research is to create an overview of the field of Quality of Life (QOL) studies in the early years of the 21st century that can be updated and improved upon as the field evolves and the century unfolds. Social indicators are statistical time series “...used to monitor the social system, helping to identify changes and to guide intervention to alter the course of social change”. Examples include unemployment rates, crime rates, estimates of life expectancy, health status indices, school enrollment rates, average achievement scores, election voting rates, and measures of subjective well-being such as satisfaction with life-as-a-whole and with specific domains or aspects of life. This book provides a review of the historical development of the field including the history of QOL in medicine and mental health as well as the research related to quality-of-work-life (QWL) programs. It discusses several of QOL main concepts: happiness, positive psychology, and subjective wellbeing. Relations between spirituality and religiousness and QOL are examined as are the effects of educational attainment on QOL and marketing, and the associations with economic growth. The book goes on to investigate methodological approaches and issues that should be considered in measuring and analysing quality of life from a quantitative perspective. The final chapters are dedicated to research on elements of QOL in a broad range of countries and populations.

Psychologists have been observing and interpreting economic behaviour for at least fifty years, and the last decade, in particular, has seen an escalated interest in the interface between psychology and economics. The Cambridge Handbook of Psychology and Economic Behaviour is a valuable reference resource dedicated to improving our understanding of the economic mind and economic behaviour. Employing empirical methods – including laboratory experiments, field experiments, observations, questionnaires and interviews – the Handbook covers aspects of theory and method, financial and consumer behaviour, the environment and biological perspectives. With contributions from distinguished scholars from a variety of countries and backgrounds, the Handbook is an important step forward in the improvement of communications between the disciplines of psychology and economics. It will appeal to academic researchers and graduates in economic psychology and behavioural economics.