Pursuing happiness : the politics of surviving well together

Until recently, it has been widely assumed that economic measures such as Gross Domestic Product and Gross National Product gauge not just the economic well-being of nations but the subjective well-being - the happiness - of their citizens. However, over the last forty years this assumption has been unravelling as studies investigate the empirical link between economic development and happiness. In 1974, Richard Easterlin compared data from countries across the globe and his findings have become known as the Easterlin paradox: within countries, those on higher incomes arc happier than those on lower incomes; however, when comparisons are made between countries there is little difference in levels of happiness between richer and poorer countries, and as countries get richer levels of happiness do not necessarily increase.