Benedictine monasteries from the point of view of happiness economics

Tomas Janotik ()
Additional contact information
Tomas Janotik: Faculty of Social Sciences, Charles University in Prague

Economics Bulletin, 2012, vol. 32, issue 2, 1215-1225

Abstract: This paper examines Benedictine monasteries and the way of life of Benedictine monks from the perspective of happiness economics. We argue that social interaction and the personal identification of monks with their community are important determinants of the successful historical performance of monasteries and of the fact that monasteries have managed to provide satisfaction to many generations of monks. We use Adam Smith's concept of the mutual correspondence of sentiments to describe the nature of social interaction. We describe how higher satisfaction with life motivates monks to fully invest their potential into the future of the organization and thus leads to better corporate governance and management. Finally, the paper presents ideas for future empirical research in monastic communities.

Keywords: happiness economics; subjective well-being; social interaction; correspondence of sentiments; Benedictine monasteries (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: D2 Z0 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2012-04-17
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.accessecon.com/Pubs/EB/2012/Volume32/EB-12-V32-I2-P116.pdf (application/pdf)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:ebl:ecbull:eb-12-00125

Access Statistics for this article

More articles in Economics Bulletin from AccessEcon
Bibliographic data for series maintained by John P. Conley ().