Hedonic capital, adaptation and resilience

Liam Graham () and Andrew Oswald
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Liam Graham: Department of Economics - University of Warwick [Coventry]

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Abstract: The paper sets out a theory of hedonic adaptation and resilience. By distinguishing between stocks and flows of psychological resources, it suggests a new way to think about the dynamics of human well-being or 'happiness'. Central to the analysis is a concept we refer to as . We build on the idea that the evolutionary function of happiness is as a motivating device. Our model successfully replicates the patterns routinely found in well-being data-particularly the empirical regularity of an approximately stable level of well-being and the adaptive tendency to return towards that level. The formal model provides a number of testable empirical predictions.

Keywords: I3; Adaptation; well-being; evolution; happiness; habituation; resilience; D1; I3. (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2010-10-06
Note: View the original document on HAL open archive server: https://hal.science/hal-00870190v1
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (39)

Published in Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization, 2010, 76 (2), pp.372. ⟨10.1016/j.jebo.2010.07.003⟩

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Journal Article: Hedonic capital, adaptation and resilience (2010)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:hal:journl:hal-00870190

DOI: 10.1016/j.jebo.2010.07.003

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