Unhappiness and Pain in Modern America: A Review Essay, and Further Evidence, on Carol Graham’s Happiness for All?

Blanchflower, David; Oswald, Andrew J.

Unhappiness and Pain in Modern America: A Review Essay, and Further Evidence, on Carol Graham’s Happiness for All?

David Blanchflower and Andrew J. Oswald
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Andrew J. Oswald: University of Warwick, CAGE, and IZA

CAGE Online Working Paper Series from Competitive Advantage in the Global Economy (CAGE)

Abstract: In Happiness for All?, Carol Graham raises disquieting ideas about today’s United States.The challenge she puts forward is an important one. Here we review the intellectual case and offer additional evidence. We conclude broadly on the author’s side. Strikingly, Americans appear to be in greater pain than citizens of other countries, and most subgroups of citizens have downwardly trended happiness levels. There is, however, one bright side to an otherwise dark story. The happiness of black Americans has risen strongly since the 1970s. It is now almost equal to that of white Americans.

Keywords: Happiness; well-being; GHQ; mental-health; depression; life-course JEL Classification: I3, I31 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2018
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-hap, nep-hea, nep-his, nep-hpe and nep-ltv
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (3)

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https://warwick.ac.uk/fac/soc/economics/research/c ... /360-2018_oswald.pdf

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:cge:wacage:360

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