Gross National Happiness and Macroeconomic Indicators in the Kingdom of Bhutan

Sriram Balasubramanian and Paul Cashin ()

No 2019/015, IMF Working Papers from International Monetary Fund

Abstract: This paper examines the origins and use of the concept of Gross National Happiness (or subjective well-being) in the Kingdom of Bhutan, and the relationship between measured well-being and macroeconomic indicators. While there are only a few national surveys of Gross National Happiness in Bhutan, the concept has been used to guide public policymaking for the country’s various Five-Year Plans. Consistent with the Easterlin Paradox, available evidence indicates that Bhutan’s rapid increase in national income is only weakly associated with increases in measured levels of well-being. It will be important for Bhutan to undertake more frequent Gross National Happiness surveys and evaluations, to better build evidence for comovement of well-being and macroeconomic concepts such as real national income.

Keywords: WP; Bhutan; real GDP; GNH survey; GNH framework; indicator; real income; gross national happiness; gross domestic product; GNH index; GNH objective; GNH indicator; GNH policy; GNH tool; Income; Housing; Poverty reduction; Global (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 26
Date: 2019-01-17
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-hap
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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