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Viewpoint: Measuring and understanding subjective well‐being

Authors :
John F. Helliwell
Christopher Barrington-Leigh
Source :
Canadian Journal of Economics/Revue canadienne d'économique. 43:729-753
Publication Year :
2010
Publisher :
Wiley, 2010.

Abstract

Increasing attention is being paid in academic, policy, and public arenas to subjective measures of well-being. This promising trend represents a shift towards mea- suring positive outcomes in psychology and greater realism in the study of economic behaviour. We describe the main measures of subjective well-being (SWB) and provide ex- amples of policy-relevant research findings, including new accountings of the differences in individual-level SWB assessments around the world and across Canada. These suggest a consistent pattern of life circumstances linked to SWB and highlight the importance of social factors whose role has otherwise been hard to quantify in income-equivalent terms.

Details

ISSN :
15405982 and 00084085
Volume :
43
Database :
OpenAIRE
Journal :
Canadian Journal of Economics/Revue canadienne d'économique
Accession number :
edsair.doi...........3f6a849a8f550acbe1ff34f6a5f9fc95
Full Text :
https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1540-5982.2010.01592.x