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My presentation intends to provide an evaluation of where the economic research on happiness stands and in which interesting directions it might develop. It is strongly influenced by the work undertaken at the chair for economic policy at the University of Zurich. Other scholars might emphasize different aspects and problems, and in particular consider different future contributions to be important.
In the first part I discuss the current state of the research on happiness in economics. The survey section is on purpose kept short, mainly because the authors recently provided an extensive review in a journal and in a book (Frey and Stutzer 2002a,b).
Here I want to indicate the general flavor, and to direct the audience not familiar with the approach to the relevant literature. I emphasize the potential of happiness research in testing competing theories of individual behavior.
The second part takes up the crucial issue of causality.
The third part looks at happiness research as a new approach to measuring utility in the context of cost-benefit analysis. I argue that happiness research allows us to well capture the effects of public goods and public bads on utility. Indeed, the approach has several important advantages over the use of contingent valuation surveys and hedonic market evaluations. I illustrate the approach with the example for a major public bad, terrorism.
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If you would like to attend this seminar, please send an email to Johannes Meuer, jmeuer@rsm.nl
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| Johannes Meuer |
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