On the happiness of nations

Mahalanobis is discussing the happiness, or reported subjective well being, scale. The subject has gained a lot of momentum since The Economist did a story on its special, years end, issue and David Cameron argued that SWB should influence policy:

"It's time we admitted that there's more to life than money, and it's time we focused not just on GDP, but on GWB - general well-being," he said.

"Well-being can't be measured by money or traded in markets. It's about the beauty of our surroundings, the quality of our culture and, above all, the strength of our relationships.

"Improving our society's sense of well-being is, I believe, the central political challenge of our times."

Tom West, in a comment in Marginal Revolution, brings out this intriguing point:

I get a strong feeling that happiness research is frowned upon by a lot of economists because it threatens the motivation behind the one thing they know how to do well: create growth.

There's pretty strong evidence that the ideal conditions for creating growth (such as insecurity, high labor mobility, and increased inequality) are not conducive to happiness. If one decides that even the desired end-product doesn't produce happiness, then it's a pretty short road to asking why we're making ourselves miserable pursuing an outcome that doesn't make us happy.

And if we do that, then a lot of economists holding hammers get told that the world is not necessarily a big nail.

In any case, it's always nice to have a glimpse at how nations compare in the happiness scale, as measured in

Marks, N., Abdallah, S., Simms, A, Thompson, S. (2006). The Happy Planet Index. London: New Economics Foundation.

So here it is. [I'm sure readers will understand that, for reasons of space, I had to make a random, arbitrary, cut point.]

Nation	SWLS Score
DENMARK	273
SWITZERLAND	273
AUSTRIA	260
ICELAND	260
BAHAMAS	257
FINLAND	257
SWEDEN	257
BHUTAN	253
BRUNEI DARUSSALAM	253
CANADA	253
IRELAND	253
LUXEMBOURG	253
COSTA RICA	250
MALTA	250
NETHERLANDS	250
ANTIGUA AND BARBUDA	247
MALAYSIA	247
NEW ZEALAND	247
NORWAY	247
SEYCHELLES	247
ST KITTS AND NEVIS	247
UAE	247
USA	247
VANUATU	247
VENEZUELA	247
AUSTRALIA	243
BARBADOS	243
BELGIUM	243
DOMINICA	243
OMAN	243
SAUDI ARABIA	243
SURINAME	243
BAHRAIN	240
COLUMBIA	240
GERMANY	240
GUYANA	240
HONDURAS	240
KUWAIT	240
PANAMA	240
ST VINCENT AND THE	240
UNITED KINGDOM	237
DOMINICAN REPUBLIC	233
GUATEMALA	233
JAMAICA	233
QATAR	233
SPAIN	233
ST LUCIA	233
BELIZE	230
CYPRUS	230
ITALY	230
MEXICO	230
SAMOA WESTERN	230
SINGAPORE	230
SOLOMON ISLANDS	230
TRINIDAD AND TOBAGO	230
ARGENTINA	227
FIJI	223
ISRAEL	223
MONGOLIA	223
SAO TOME AND PERINI	223
EL SALVADOR	220
FRANCE	220
HONG KONG	220
INDONESIA	220
KYRGYZSTAN	220
MALDIVES	220
SLOVENIA	220
TAIWAN	220
TIMOR-LESTE	220
TONGA	220
CHILE	217
GRENADA	217
MAURITIUS	217
NAMIBIA	217
PARAGUAY	217
THAILAND	217
CZECH REPUBLIC	213
PHILIPPINES	213
TUNISIA	213
UZBEKISTAN	213
BRAZIL	210