Happiness Economics

While psychological literature is familiar with the study of individual creativity, macro-level creative industries and economies have been studied only recently. Indices like the Global Creativity Index (GCI) and the Global Innovation Index (GII) compile information of over 130 economies to provide a snapshot of their creative and innovative behaviour. Given the positive association between creative occupations and subjective well-being (SWB), a study at the national level between these variables can provide valuable insights. Creative inputs, such as a tolerant environment, creative out-puts like number of patents filed nationally, and the monetization of creative activities, like the monetary value of creative good exports were used as predictors for SWB. Quantitative regression analyses of secondary data from various agencies, including the World Bank, International Labor Organization, and Gallup Poll, indicated that SWB was significantly explained by specific creativity parameters at the national level. In line with the assumptions that creativity and innovation will be the drivers of future economies and ideas will create economic value, relationships between creativity and SWB can provide meaning and motivation to countries looking to capitalize human resources.

This essay focuses on ways in which the governments of Bhutan and the United Kingdom are measuring subjective well-being as well as on how other governments including Norway, Spain, China, Canada, and New Zealand, are exploring the development of subjective well-being indicators. It concludes with recommended actions to aid in the formation of a consistent and comparable subjective well-being indicator for use by governments globally. The third in a series for which the purpose is to provide information to grassroots activists to foster the happiness movement for a new economic paradigm, this essay builds on the previous essays, Happiness in Public Policy and Measuring Happiness to Guide Public Policy: A Survey of Instruments and Policy Initiatives.

A remarkable current development, happiness economics focuses on the relevance of people’s happiness in economic analyses. As this theory has been criticised for relying on an incomplete notion of happiness, this paper intends to support it with richer philosophical and psychological foundations. Specifically, it suggests that happiness economics
should be based on Aristotle’s philosophical eudaimonia concept and on a modified version of ‘positive psychology’ that stresses human beings’ relational nature. First, this
analysis describes happiness economics and its shortcomings. Next, it introduces Aristotle’s eudaimonia and takes a look at positive psychology with this lens, elaborating on
the need to develop a new approach that goes beyond the economics of happiness: the economics of flourishing. Finally, the paper specifies some possible socio-economic
objectives of a eudaimonic economics of happiness.

Purpose -This paper aims to provide an overview of the recently introduced concept of work engagement. Design/methodology/approach -Qualitative and quantitative studies on work engagement are reviewed to uncover the manifestation of engagement, and reveal its antecedents and consequences. Findings -Work engagement can be defined as a state including vigor, dedication, and absorption. Job and personal resources are the main predictors of engagement; these resources gain their salience in the context of high job demands. Engaged workers are more creative, more productive, and more willing to go the extra mile. Originality/value -The findings of previous studies are integrated in an overall model that can be used to develop work engagement and advance career development in today's workplace.

Positive psychology is the scientific study of a healthy and flourishing life. The goal of positive psychology is to complement and extend the traditional problem-focused psychology that has proliferated in recent decades. Positive psychology is concerned with positive psychological states (eg, happiness), positive psychological traits (eg, talents, interests, strengths of character), positive relationships, and positive institutions. We describe evidences of how topics of positive psychology apply to physical health. Research has shown that psychological health assets (eg, positive emotions, life satisfaction, optimism, life purpose, social support) are prospectively associated with good health measured in a variety of ways. Not yet known is whether positive psychology interventions improve physical health. Future directions for the application of positive psychology to health are discussed. We conclude that the application of positive psychology to health is promising, although much work remains to be done.

The notion of happiness has been a frequent subject of recent governmental proclamations in Greece, signaling a departure from the moralizing discourses of guilt, blame, and debt surrounding the crisis of the past decade. Faced with the consequences of the global financial crisis, many governments were looking for ways to justify the massive bailout packages they were putting together, without having to radically challenge the system that made the bailout packages necessary in the first place. The science of happiness works to this end, in that it allows for a reading of the reasons of the crisis as stemming from individual behaviours, rather than systemic failures, which can be corrected with ‘nudges’ — tricks to alter our behaviours to pursue more active and resilient lifestyles. Happiness – and its virtues of comfort, joy, pleasure, or hope – is instrumentalized for political and economic ends. Happiness overlaps with modernization, in that any form of critique against it is thwarted of as miserabilism by those who have always complained, will continue to do so, and cannot be happy. As the promise of the capitalist imaginary (the ability to compete for middle-class belonging and relative economic security, by getting a good education and working hard) has effectively collapsed for the majority of people living in Greece, its legitimacy is under threat. Capitalism, it appears, now operates without the liberal values of ‘fairness’ and ‘opportunity’ that once justified capitalism’s competition and inequality. As we will show, the political imaginary of happiness serves a dual purpose. On the one hand, happiness is used by the Mitsotakis government to radically re-brand Greece after a decade of austerity to attract ‘human capital’ (and foreign investments), desirable migrants (especially ‘digital nomads’) and visitors. On the other hand, happiness is to discipline the Greek population.