Reflections on the Literature

Abstract

This article considers the large literature on “happiness economics,” which uses people's answers to survey questions about their happiness to address economic policy tradeoffs. The authors of this literature contend that their assessments provide a measure of respondents’ “true internal utility.” They have also argued that these assessments can be used to measure the tradeoffs people would make to change policy. Happiness economics seems to have captivated both the editors and referees of the flagship journals in economics. Theorists are trying to reconcile existing economic models with the empirical results of happiness economics, and behavioral economists are using the empirical results to support calls for new approaches to consumer sovereignty. Serious responses to happiness economics from environmental economists are long overdue. This article examines how a happiness survey would fare if it had to face the same standards used to evaluate contingent valuation or stated choice questions.

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