The Economics of Happiness

Mariano Rojas is Professor of Economics at Facultad Latinoamericana de Ciencias Sociales, Sede México and at Universidad Popular Autónoma del Estado de Puebla, Mexico. He holds a Ph.D in economics from The Ohio State University, United States. His areas of research are: Subjective Well-Being, Happiness, Quality of Life, Poverty Studies, Economic Development and Social Progress. He was the President of the International Society for Quality of Life Studies, which is the largest and oldest academic Society addressing the issues of quality of life, happiness and well-being. He has published the books entitled The Scientific Study of Happiness (Fondo de Cultura Económica, Mexico) and Can the Economy provide Happiness? (RBA, Spain). Mariano Rojas also edited the Handbook of Happiness Research in Latin America (Springer) and co-edited the Global Handbook of Quality of Life: Exploration of Well-Being of Nations and Continents (Springer). He has published more than 100 academic papers and book chapters, mostly about happiness-related issues. Mariano Rojas also coordinated the Mexican Initiative Measuring the Progress of Societies: A Perspective from Mexico, which aimed to make a contribution from Latin America to the global discussion on new ways of conceiving and measuring social performance and progress. He has edited many books dealing with paradigm shift in the notion of social progress, such as: The Measurement of Progress and Well-Being; Proposals from Latin America.

Part 1. Introduction.- Chapter 1. The Relevance of Richard Easterlin's Groundbreaking Work. A Historical Perspective (Mariano Rojas).- Part 2. Income and Happiness.- Chapter 2. The Easterlin Paradox Revisited: Who is Right? (Maarten Vendrik).- Chapter 3. Relative Income, Subjective Wellbeing and the Easterlin Paradox: Intra- and Inter-national Comparisons (Arthur Grimes).- Chapter 4. Relative Income in Latin America (Mariano Rojas).- Part 3. Happiness in Welfare Economics.- Chapter 5. Does Happiness Improve Welfare Economics a Lot? (Gabriel Leite Mota).- Chapter 6. The Easterlin Paradox from the Perspective of Scitovsky's The Joyless Economy (Maurizio Pugno).- Part 4. Happiness in Development.- Chapter 7. It's not the Economy, Stupid! Shifting Policies from Economic Growth to Social Capital and Happiness (Stefano Bartolini).- Chapter 8. Homo Economics and Happiness: Towards more Sustainable Development (Martin Binder).- Chapter 9. Keynes' Grandchildren and Easterlin's Paradox: What isKeeping us from Reducing our Working Hours? (Johannes Hirata).- Chapter 10. Using Well-Being Metrics to Assess Social Well-Being and Ill-Being: Lessons from Rising Mortality Rates in the United States (Carol Graham).- Part 5. Social Foundations of Happiness.- Chapter 11. When does the Weight of Expectations hit Children? And are They Peer Oriented? (Paul Frijters).- Chapter 12. Social Foundations of the Life Course of Happiness (John F. Helliwell).- Part 6. Happiness along the Life Course.- Chapter 13. Born to be Mild? Cohort Effects don't (fully) Explain why Well-being is U-shaped in Age (Andrew E. Clark).- Chapter 14. Do Modern Humans Suffer a Psychological Low in Midlife? Two Approaches (With and Without Controls) in Seven Data Sets (David G. Blanchflower ).- Part 7. Happiness in Economics.- Chapter 15. Inequality Aversion and Risk Attitudes (Ada Ferrer-i-Carbonell ).- Chapter 15. Inequality Aversion and Risk Attitudes (Ada Ferrer-i-Carbonell).- Chapter 16. Happiness and Lottery Wins (Andrew J. Oswald).- Part 8. Happiness in Politics.- Chapter 17. The Subjective Well-being Political Paradox: Evidence from Latin America (Anke C. Plagnol).