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A "happiness test" for the new measures of national well-being: How much better than GDP are they?

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  • Delhey, Jan
  • Kroll, Christian
Abstract
Across the globe there is growing skepticism about the usefulness of GDP as a measure of national well-being. Consequently, several alternative quality-of-life (QOL) measures were developed which either aim at healing the GDP, complementing it, or replacing it. This chapter portrays some of these new measures and puts them to a happiness test: compared to the GDP, are the new QOL measures better able to capture what makes people happy and satisfied with their lives? Using data for 34 OECD societies, we can show that from a happiness perspective, there is-surprisingly-little wrong with the GDP, and most alternative QOL measures do not outperform GDP. Yet, one measure actually does a better job: the OECD's Better Life Index which is particularly effective when it comes to predicting subjective well-being in the richest OECD countries. In sum, the chapter demonstrates that a happiness perspective can add important insights along the way to facilitate the search for a new, widely accepted, internationally comparable measure of well-being.

Suggested Citation

  • Delhey, Jan & Kroll, Christian, 2012. "A "happiness test" for the new measures of national well-being: How much better than GDP are they?," Discussion Papers, Research Unit: Inequality and Social Integration SP I 2012-201, WZB Berlin Social Science Center.
    • Handle: RePEc:zbw:wzbisi:spi2012201
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    Cited by:

    1. Thomas Carver & Arthur Grimes, 2019. "Income or Consumption: Which Better Predicts Subjective Well‐Being?," Review of Income and Wealth, International Association for Research in Income and Wealth, vol. 65(S1), pages 256-280, November.
    2. Clemens Hetschko & Louisa von Reumont & Ronnie Schöb, 2019. "Embedding as a pitfall for survey‐based welfare indicators: evidence from an experiment," Journal of the Royal Statistical Society Series A, Royal Statistical Society, vol. 182(2), pages 517-539, February.
    3. Carla Collicelli, 2013. "Subjective Indicators in the Health Sector and Their Usefulness in Policy Making," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 114(1), pages 87-103, October.
    4. Christian Kroll & Jan Delhey, 2013. "A Happy Nation? Opportunities and Challenges of Using Subjective Indicators in Policymaking," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 114(1), pages 13-28, October.
    5. Mohsen Joshanloo & Veljko Jovanović & Tim Taylor, 2019. "A multidimensional understanding of prosperity and well-being at country level: Data-driven explorations," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 14(10), pages 1-31, October.
    6. Ruohong Cai & Neli Esipova & Michael Oppenheimer & Shuaizhang Feng, 2014. "International migration desires related to subjective well-being," IZA Journal of Migration and Development, Springer;Forschungsinstitut zur Zukunft der Arbeit GmbH (IZA), vol. 3(1), pages 1-20, December.
    7. Kroll, Christian & Zipperer, Vera, 2020. "Sustainable Development and Populism," EconStor Open Access Articles and Book Chapters, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics, vol. 176, pages 106723-1067.
    8. Fabrizio Antolini & Biagio Simonetti, 2019. "The Easterlin Paradox in Italy, or the Paradox in Measuring? Define Happiness Before Investigating It," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 146(1), pages 263-285, November.
    9. Serap TAŞKAYA, 2020. "Impact of the Provinces’ Gross Domestic Product Per Capita on the Better Life Index: An Analysis at the Level of Provinces Abstract: Recent studies on determining the impact of income on quality of li," Sosyoekonomi Journal, Sosyoekonomi Society, issue 28(45).
    10. Luigino Bruni & Giovanni Ferri, 2015. "oes Cooperativeness Promote Happiness? Cross-country Evidence," Mo.Fi.R. Working Papers 107, Money and Finance Research group (Mo.Fi.R.) - Univ. Politecnica Marche - Dept. Economic and Social Sciences.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Better Life Index; GDP; happiness; Human Development Index; life satisfaction; national well-being; quality of life;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • I31 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Welfare, Well-Being, and Poverty - - - General Welfare, Well-Being

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