28/05/2008 11:28:46 am
Wealth Makes Us Happy. Research into happiness in different countries and its causes has become fashionable. A common conclusion has been that wealthier people in one country are happier than poor people in the same country - but that there is no particular difference between countries. This has lead some to believe that the wealth of a country is not relevant for happiness and thus that policies of growth are unnecessary.

Today, Betsey Stevenson, Associate Professor at Wharton School, presented new evidence in this discussion for a Swedish audience at the Research Institute of Industrial Economics. She pointed out that a problem for earlier research was uncertainty. They did not find clear correlations between wealth and happiness between countries - which, of course, never meant they didn′t exist.

Using all available data - not only parts of it that were previously used - she managed to find what had not been found previously. People in wealthy countries are generally happier, and happiness increases over time if a country gets wealthier. She also resolves the issue of Japan, which was said to have had enormous growth but not increasing happiness. It turns out that the previous researcher have not understood the Japanese language, but when correctly interpreted, there was an increase in happiness there as well.