Economics and Happiness: Framing the Analysis

The set of papers collected in this volume aims to provide an overview of happiness studies to date, with a special emphasis on its relationship with economic thought. This volume discusses the state of the art and the main strands and contributions to the "economics of happiness", as a sub-discipline related to political economy. However, the main thrust of the volume is in focuses on the relationship between happiness studies and economics. Moreover, this volume makes a specific contribution in highlighting the comparative role and influence in the subjectivist approach vis-à-vis the objectivist approach to human happiness in the current literature in the field.

The ambition of this book is to present the reader with a conceptual framework for a critical understanding of happiness studies and its relationship with economics. While the economic perspective is central, the focus here is on economics and happiness rather than the economics of happiness.