Maybe Happiness Should Be an ED Performance Measure

An increasing number of scholars and academics are taking a closer look at the relationship between money and happiness in order to see if insights into what makes people happy can lead to more effective social policies.

Some of those in the forefront of studying the "economics of happiness" took part in a panel today at the Brookings Institution. The social scientists are wrestling with a dilemma described by Brookings Visiting Fellow Gregg Easterbrook in his recent book, The Progress Paradox: How Life Gets Better While People Feel Worse.

Panelists at a recent Brookings Institute seminar said that the research on economic well-being, once a vague abstraction, is now comprehensive and statistically sound. Cost-benefit analyses can now be used to put dollar values on such non-economic indicators such as satisfaction of life, work, marriage, depression, stress, trust, and security.

Placing greater emphasis on the economics of happiness, according to panelists, could yield several important policy advances. Brookings Senior Fellow Carol Graham showed data measuring economic mobility and well-being in Peru (1991-2000) and Russia (from 1995-1999), and she said the data could more clearly suggest potential problems than traditional economic indicators.

I look at Tibet, which has Gross Domestic Happiness as one of its measures of success. I work in lots of communities across the country on ED strategies. All of them are trying to "make people more prosperous." Maybe we should add happiness to our strategic planning agenda in the future.Why not?

Here for more.