Economic Migration and Happiness: Comparing Immigrants’ and Natives’ Happiness Gains From Income

Income inequality and happiness.

Using General Social Survey data from 1972 to 2008, we found that Americans were on average happier in the years with less national income inequality than in the years with more national income inequality. We further demonstrated that this inverse relation between income inequality and happiness was explained by perceived fairness and general trust. That is, Americans trusted other people less ...

Income, Leisure, and Happiness

Happiness and International Migration

In this paper, we consider the extent to which the aggregate happiness of a country affects the flow of people across its borders. We merge data from the World Values Survey, which produces happiness indices for 84 countries between 1981 and 2004, with three different migration datasets. We find that happiness has a U-shaped relationship with emigration rates: emigration rates fall in happiness...

Happiness Economics: A New Road to Measuring and Comparing Happiness

This paper deals with the concept of happiness in economics. Of late there has come into life a branch of happiness economics and it is this field that will be our concern. Actually, not only economists are interested in quantifications of happiness but also researchers in other disciplines. Notably there are several psychologists who investigate happiness as well. We mention Schimmack et al. (...

Does Income Measure Happiness?

Is economic well-being is accurately captured by traditional economic measures like per-capita income? This has long been a contested issue. Although everyone concedes that income is an imperfect welfare measure, conservative economists have tended to emphasize its virtues, while liberals have been more likely to stress its shortcomings. This debate is not just of philosophical interest; it als...