Teaching happiness (economics) in your dismal-science courses

Kristen B. Cooper, Ori Heffetz, John Ifcher, Ekaterina Oparina and Stephen Wu

LSE Research Online Documents on Economics from London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library

Abstract: The authors of this article discuss ideas for incorporating the study of happiness and other measures of self-reported or subjective well-being (SWB) into undergraduate economics courses. They begin by motivating why economics students would benefit from learning about SWB, and then proceed to provide examples of ways to introduce this topic into different parts of the curriculum: macroeconomics, microeconomics, and upper-division electives.

Keywords: happiness; subjective well-being; undergraduate curriculum; pedagogy (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: A22 I30 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 15 pages
Date: 2026-01-24
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Published in Journal of Economic Education, 24, January, 2026, 57(2). ISSN: 0022-0485

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