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Historically, from 1980 until 2011, Switzerland and the UK and Spain all had average quarterly GDP Growth of about 0.5 percent. Yet they have had very different unemployment rates. Stiglitz Report 2009: “Measures of .. objective and subjective well-being provide key information about people’s quality of life. Statistical offices [worldwide] should incorporate questions to capture people’s life evaluations, hedonic experiences … in their own survey.” P.16. Executive Summary of Commission Report. “Emphasis on growth is misguided” “Beyond GDP” “Measuring what matters”  Happiness is the new GDP  ?? Smile, and the economy smiles with you. Factory workers in Macedonia. There has recently been a critique of Easterlin’s idea There has recently been a critique of Easterlin’s idea Betsey Stevenson and Justin Wolfers have argued that economic growth does buy happiness. Brookings Papers, Spring 2008 Their work is extremely valuable Their work is extremely valuable But ultimately I think they probably have the wrong answer. Much of their paper is concerned with cross-section patterns. In the long time-differences, which is the appropriate test, little is statistically significant in 1973-2007 European data. Moreover, Stevenson and Wolfers agree that Americans have if anything become less happy over the last 40 years. Overall I would say that currently the balance of the evidence favours Easterlin rather than Stevenson-Wolfers. [though it is bad science for us ever to close our minds, so we must watch for new evidence as it accumulates] In the early 70s, 33% of Americans described their lives as very happy, 52% as pretty happy, and 15% as not too happy. In the early 70s, 33% of Americans described their lives as very happy, 52% as pretty happy, and 15% as not too happy. By the late 2000s, the numbers were 31%, 55%, 14%. Stiglitz Report 2009: “Measures of .. objective and subjective well-being provide key information about people