Happiness, Economics and Public Policy

In this video from the Institute of Economic Affairs, Helen Johns talks about her new book, co-authored with Paul Ormerod, Happiness, Economics and Public Policy.

The book argues that happiness research cannot be used to justify government intervention in the way its proponents suggest. Those who wish governments to take into account measures of wellbeing when setting policy often point to the fact that increases in income have not led to increases in measured happiness, and thus governments should concentrate on redistribution and improving the quality of life, rather than on allowing people to benefit from economic growth. In fact, measured happiness does not appear to be related to public spending, violent crime, property crime, sexual equality, disability, life expectancy or unemployment either.

The basic problem is that the difficulties in measuring society's happiness are insurmountable, and policy makers should not claim that they can control and increase happiness through public policy decisions.