The Elusive Quest of Happiness

Abstract

This article summarizes key findings in the contemporary research field of happiness economics. Elaborated is the influence of macroeconomic factors like inflation, unemployment, and GDP, as well as the quality of governance on the overall reported life satisfaction. The concepts of conspicuous consumption and the relative income hypothesis are brought in connection with the notion of the ‘hedonic treadmill’ for the purpose of explaining the invariant happiness levels in the last decades despite of the remarkable increase in standard of living. The methodological framework is used to find an answer to the puzzling question of declining women’s reported happiness levels in developed economies