Do Sen's capabilities determine happiness? Evidence from a unique survey data

Hamid Hasan and Hayat Khan

International Journal of Happiness and Development, 2015, vol. 2, issue 2, 160-181

Abstract: We use a unique dataset in the Pakistan Socio-Economic Survey (PSES) to measure sense-of-achievement, sense-of-freedom-to-achieve, and sense-of-ability-to-achieve which quantifies Sen's functioning, freedom and conversion efficiency respectively for an overall functioning of 'being achieved'. We show that the PSES capability indicators of subjective well-being (SWB) provide distinctive information while together with the happiness indicator they capture additional insights about SWB which is lacking in human development index (HDI) as shown by a comparison of districts ranking on the basis of HDI and SWB indices. Moreover, we find that the capabilities of 'being achieved' are the most important and stable determinants of happiness vis-à-vis income and education.

Keywords: happiness; Sen's capabilities; subjective well-being; SWB; human development index; HDI; income; education; sense of achievement; freedom to achieve; ability to achieve. (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2015
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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