Economic Growth Evens Out Happiness: Evidence from Six Surveys.
In spite of the great U-turn that saw income inequality rise in Western countries in the 1980s, happiness inequality has fallen in countries that have experienced income growth (but not in those that did not). Modern growth has reduced the share of both the "very unhappy" and the "perfectly happy". Lower happiness inequality is found both between and within countries, and between and within individuals. Our cross-country regression results argue that the extension of various public goods helps to explain this greater happiness homogeneity. This new stylised fact arguably comes as a bonus to the Easterlin paradox, offering a somewhat brighter perspective for developing countries.
PSE, 48 Boulevard Jourdan, 75014 Paris, France. Tel.: + 33-1-43-13-63-29. Andrew.Clark@ens.fr.
Andrew E
AE
Clark
Centre for Economic Performance, London School of Economics and Political Science, Houghton Street, London WC2A 2AE, UK. S.Fleche@lse.ac.uk.
Sarah
S
Flèche
PSE, 48 Boulevard Jourdan, 75014 Paris, France. Tel.: + 33-1-43-13-63-12. senik@pse.ens.fr.
Claudia
C
Senik
Easterlin paradox; Happiness; development; economic growth; inequality