Happiness has been the subject of study of philosophy, psychology, anthropology and many other disciplines for a long time, but only recently have economists become interested in happiness. In the past two decades they have provided precious insights into the determinants of happiness and have helped to interpret some economic phenomena — such as the social cost of unemployment — from a new perspective.
Perhaps inspired by these advances, some European governments — particularly in France and the UK — have recently become interested in learning how we can measure the overall welfare of a country by using happiness data, and whether such data can be used for policy purposes. In this article we review the major findings by economists on happiness and discuss the extent to which happiness data can be used by governments for evaluating public policies.
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