Happiness Quantified A Satisfaction Calculus Approach

by van Praag, Bernard; Ferrer-i-Carbonell, Ada

• ISBN13: 9780199226146
• ISBN10: 0199226148
• Edition: Revised
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2008-03-01
• Publisher: Oxford University Press

Summary

How do we measure happiness? This important and long-awaited book presents a new and unified approach to the analysis of subjective satisfaction and income evaluation. Drawing on empirical analyses of German, British, Dutch, and Russian data, it develops new methodology to establish a model of well-being which includes satisfaction with life as a whole and with various domains of life. This method is applied to study individual and collective norms, to construct family-equivalence scales, to estimate health damages, compensation for externalities, and the construction of tax tariffs, and to define subjective inequalities with respect to well-being, income, and other domains of life. Written for a wide readership of social scientists, the book presents a theoretical and empirical breakthrough into a new and fruitful methodology in the social sciences.

Author Biography

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 in Applied 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 the founding 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 Autonoma 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 an M.S. in Economics and did research and teaching. In 2003 she obtained a PhD from the Faculty of Economics and Econometrics at the University of Amsterdam and the Tinbergen Institute, and then another PhD from RPI. She works for the Amsterdam Institute for Advanced Labour Studies at the University of Amsterdam.

Table of Contents

Introduction

The Analysis of Income Satisfaction with an Application to Family Equivalence Scales

Domain Satisfactions

The Aggregation of Satisfactions: General Satisfaction as an Aggregate

Political Satisfaction

Males, Females, and Households

The Impact on Past and Future on Present Satisfaction

The Influence of the Reference Group on our Norms

Health and Subjective Well-being

The Effects of Climate on Welfare and Well-being: External Effects

How to Find Compensations for Aircraft Noise Nuisance

Taxation and Well-being

Subjective Income Inequalities

A generalized approach to subjective inequalities

Poverty

Epilogue

References

Table of Contents provided by Publisher. All Rights Reserved.