According to Wikipedia happiness economics is the study of a country's well-being by combining economists' and psychologists' techniques. Up to a certain threshold, increases in incomes result in increases in happiness, but beyond a certain level, further increases in incomes do not lead to higher levels of happiness.http://www.trcb.com/en-Us60Sat, 26 May 2012 03:37:22 ESTCopyright 2012 Charles Chua C K, TRCB.com All Right Reservedhttp://www.trcb.com/self-improvement/happiness/happiness-economics-2933.htm<p>According to Wikipedia happiness economics is the study of a country's well-being by combining economists' and psychologists' techniques. Up to a certain threshold, increases in incomes result in increases in happiness, but beyond a certain level, further increases in incomes do not lead to higher levels of happiness. The goal of happiness economics is to determine from what source people derive their well-being.</p><p>Here are the findings from such statistical happiness research as reported by World Bank Institute:</p><p>1. For a person, money does buy a reasonable amount of happiness. But it is useful to keep this in perspective. Very loosely, for the typical individual, a doubling of salary makes a lot less difference than life events like marriage.<br />2. For a nation, things are different. Whole counties- at least in the west almost all the research has been done - do not seem to get happier as they get richer.<br />3. Happiness is U-shaped in age. Women report higher well-being than men. Two of the biggest negatives in life are unemployment and divorce. Education is associated with high reported levels of happiness even after controlling for income.<br />4. The structure of a happiness equation has the same general form in each industrialized country (and possibly in developing nations, though only a small amount of evidence has so far been collected). In other words, the broad statistical patterns look the same in France, Britain and Australia.<br />5. There is some evidence that the same is true in panels of people, i.e., in longitudinal date. Particularly useful evidence comes from looking at windfalls, like lottery wins,<br />6. There is adaptation, Good and bad life events wear off-at least partially-as people get used to them,<br />7. Relative things matter a great deal.</p><p>Above is the World Happiness Map showing the average self-reported happiness in different nations. It was created with date of Satisfaction With Life Scale from a paper by Adrian G. White using date from a metastudy. It is an attempt to show life satisfaction in different nations. From the map we can see that Malaysians are a happy lot.</p><p>By the way, Malaysia was ranked No. 17 in the 2006 International Ranking.</p>Sun, 14 Dec 2008 16:22:46 ESThttp://www.trcb.com/self-improvement/happiness/happiness-economics-2933.htmTRCB.comSelf Improvement / Happiness