Objective and Subjective Measures of Happiness

Vani Borooah

MPRA Paper from University Library of Munich, Germany

Abstract: Happiness is usually measured by simply asking people about how happy they are (or, have been in the recent past). The most usual way of doing so is to ask a “happiness question”: ‘Taking all things together, would you say that you are (i) very happy; (ii) quite happy; (iii) not very happy; (iv) not at all happy?’ This subjective measure of happiness, based on a self-assessment of one’s emotional well-being, could, however, be complemented by other, more objective, measures of whether people were happy or unhappy. This chapter does so in respect of two indicators: tranquilliser usage among men and women in Belfast, Northern Ireland; and the propensity to self-harm among persons in the state of Queensland, Australia.

Keywords: Happiness; Objective and Subjective Measures (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: H0 I3 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2024-10
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-hap and nep-ltv
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Published in Routledge Series in Development Economics (2024): pp. 38-59

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