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This is going to be an online meetup using Zoom. If you've never used Zoom before, don't worry — it's easy to use and free to join.

Just click the link below a the scheduled date/time to join the discussion.

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HAPPINESS ECONOMICS & THE WORLD HAPPINESS REPORT

INTRODUCTION:

As some of you will remember, we had a meetup in December entitled "Should We Base Politics On Religion or Science?" where we briefly discussed whether surveys of "national happiness" could help us scientifically determine the best type of political system, economic system & cultural norms. I figured we could expand on that and look at several findings in the emerging field of "happiness economics". Then we can see how it relates to the U.N. "World Happiness Report" -- an index that attempts to measure the average happiness level of the populace in different countries.

The new subdiscipline of "happiness economics" has grown substantially since the late 20th century, with the development of new methods, surveys and indices to measure happiness and related concepts. Its findings have been described as a challenge to the economics profession, which traditionally dealt with human needs through abstraction of the pricing mechanism that emerges in market economies to help allocate scarce resources to satisfy theoretically unlimited human demands. There has been a somewhat analogous shift with psychology with the rise of the new field of "positive psychology" which focuses on happiness & well-being as opposed to mental illness.

In both positive psychology & happiness economics, happiness is typically measured using subjective measures – e.g. self-reported surveys – and a major concern has always been the accuracy & reliability of people's responses to happiness surveys. This method is relatively well accepted in positive psychology since psychologists are accustomed to studying other mental states like anxiety & depression which can seem rather nebulous & hard to quantify, but the subjective nature of happiness has posed more problems for economics which has usually prized itself on quantitative rigor.

Within happiness economics, objective measures such as lifespan, income, and education are often used as well as or instead of subjectively reported happiness, with the assumption that they generally produce happiness, which while plausible may not necessarily be the case. Happiness macroeconomics - the study of the average happiness of large populations - is faced with the additional problems presented by trying to aggregate the happiness of many individuals and also the problems that reported happiness may be partly a socio-cultural construct which makes it difficult to compare happiness across cultures. Many happiness economists believe this comparison problem can be solved by analyzing cross-sections of large data samples across nations and time which demonstrate consistent patterns in the determinants of happiness.

One of the most significant developments for happiness economics is the creation of the U.N.'s "World Happiness Report". In July 2011, the UN General Assembly resolution 65/309 Happiness: Towards a Holistic Definition of Development inviting member countries to measure the happiness of their people and to use the data to help guide public policy. The first World Happiness Report was released on April 1, 2012 as a foundational text for the UN High Level Meeting: Well-being and Happiness: Defining a New Economic Paradigm, drawing international attention. Since its inception, the World Happiness Report has been edited by 3 economists - John F. Helliwell, Richard Layard & Jeffrey Sachs - and many other respected economists, sociologists, psychologists & statisticians from around the world have contributed to it. The report outlined the state of world happiness, causes of happiness and misery, and policy implications highlighted by case studies. In 2013, the second World Happiness Report was issued, and since then has been issued on an annual basis with the exception of 2014. The report primarily uses data from the Gallup World Poll, as well as the World Values Survey.

The World Happiness Reports feature annually shifting international rankings of countries based on their populace's estimated level of overall happiness & well-being. Data is collected from people in over 150 countries. Each variable measured reveals a populated-weighted average score in a scale running from 0 to 10 that is tracked over time and compared against other countries. These variable include: (1) real GDP per capita, (2) social support, (3) healthy life expectancy, (4) freedom to make life choices, (5) generosity, and (6) perceptions of corruption. Each country is also compared against a hypothetical nation called "Dystopia", which represents the lowest national averages for each key variable and is, along with residual error, used as a regression benchmark.

To view the World Happiness Report, you can go to their website or simply check out the Wikipedia entry for a more user-friendly version of their international rankings.

NOTE: This meetup will concentrate mostly on happiness economics and its research on what makes societies happy in aggregate, but our discussion will be immediately preceded by a discussion by the Philadelphia Skeptics in the Pub meetup that will address positive psychology & its research on what increases overall happiness for individuals. To view the outline for that discussion and RSVP, click here.

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DIRECTIONS ON HOW TO PREPARE FOR OUR DISCUSSION:
The videos you see linked below are intended to give you a basic overview of the ways that economists try to analyze & measure happiness. As usual, I certainly don't expect you to read all the articles & watch all the videos prior to attending our discussion. The easiest way to prepare for our discussion is to just read the numbered videos linked under each section - this should take about 42 minutes total to get through. The articles marked with asterisks are just there to supply additional details. You can browse and look at whichever ones you want, but don't worry - we'll cover the stuff you missed in our discussion.

In terms of the discussion format, my general idea is that we'll address the 5 topics in the order presented here. I figure we'll spend about 30 minutes on the first section, and then 45 minutes discussion sections II & III together, and then another 45 minutes discussing sections IV & V together. I've listed questions under each section which we'll do our best to address.

I. HOW "HAPPINESS ECONOMICS" HANDLES STATED VS REVEALED PREFERENCES & SURVEYS VS UTILITARIAN LIFE METRICS:

1.) Adrienne Hill, "The Economics of Happiness" (video - 10:25 min.)

II. THE EASTERLIN PARADOX & HAPPINESS IN CHINA - DOES ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT LEAD TO A RISE OR DECLINE IN NATIONAL HAPPINESS?

2.) AEA w/ Shun Wang, "On whether a richer China is a happier China" (video - 2:52 min.)

III. THE PARADOX OF DECLINING (WHITE) FEMALE HAPPINESS & POSSIBLE LINKS TO THE TWO INCOME TRAP & WOMEN'S "SECOND SHIFT":

3a) Shia Lazar w/ Betsey Stevenson and Justin Wolfers, "Females and Happiness" (video - 5:01 min.)

3b) Elizabeth Warren, "The Heart of the Two Income Trap" (video - 2:40 min.)

IV. THE U.N. WORLD HAPPINESS REPORT, AMERICA'S "SOCIAL CRISIS", AND "HYGGE" (COZINESS) & "LAGOM" (ENOUGH) AS THE SECRETS TO SCANDINAVIA'S HAPPINESS:

4a) Jan-Emmanuel De Neve, "World Happiness Report 2023: talking through the key figures" (video - 6:24 min.)

4b) Mary H.K. Choi w/ Meik Wiking, "The Scandinavian Hygge Lifestyle Is Taking The World By Storm" (video - 4:52 min.)

V. WELL-BEING INEQUALITY & THE SUICIDE PARADOX (I.E. AREAS WITH HIGHER LIFE EVALUATION BUT ALSO HIGHER SUICIDE RATES):

5.) Meik Wiking, "The Dark Side of Happiness" (video - 19:21 min, start at 8:53)

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Political Philosophy
Positive Psychology
Economics
Sociology
Political Science

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