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The Origins of Happiness seeks to revolutionize how we think about human priorities and to promote public policy changes that are based on what really matters to people. Drawing on a range of evidence using large-scale data from various countries, the authors consider the key factors that affect human well-being, including income, education, employment, family conflict, health, childcare, and crime. The Origins of Happiness offers a groundbreaking new vision for how we might become more healthy, happy, and whole.
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THE ORIGINS OF HAPPINESS The Origins of Happiness T h e S c i e n c e o f Wel l - B ei n g ove r t h e L i fe C ourse Andrew E. Clark, Sarah Flèche, Richard Layard, Nattavudh Powdthavee, and George Ward With a ne w pre fa ce by t h e a ut h ors Princeton University Press Princeton & Oxford 125-80251_Clark_OriginsofHappiness_ch01_2P.indd 3 5/11/19 7:46 AM Copyright © 2018 by Princeton University Press Preface to the paperback edition, copyright © 2019 by Princeton University Press Published by Princeton University Press, 41 William Street, Princeton, New Jersey 08540 In the United Kingdom: Princeton University Press, 6 Oxford Street, Woodstock, Oxfordshire OX20 1TR press.princeton.edu Cover image courtesy LZT / Alamy Stock Vector All Rights Reserved First paperback edition, 2019 Paperback ISBN 978-0-691-19633-6 Cloth ISBN 978-0-691-17789-2 British Library Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available This book has been composed in Sabon and Scala Sans Printed on acid-free paper. ∞ Printed in the United States of America 125-80251_Clark_OriginsofHappiness_ch01_2P.indd 4 5/11/19 7:46 AM To Gus o’Donnell champion of well-beinG CONTENTS ix 1 Preface to the Paperback Edition Introduction: The New Paradigm 1. Happiness over the Life Course: What Matters Most? 15 parT i. whaT makes a happy aDulT? 2. Income 33 3. Education 51 4. Work and Unemployment 61 5. Building a Family 77 6. Health of Mind and Body 89 7. Crime 105 8. Social Norms and Institutions 115 9. Happiness at Older Ages 129 parT ii. whaT makes a successful chilD? 10. Family Income 153 11. Working Parents 161 12. Parenting and Parents’ Mental Health 169 13. Family Conflict 179 14. Schooling 187 vii Contents parT iii. so whaT? 15. Measuring Cost-Effectiveness in Terms of Happiness 197 16. The Origins of Happiness 211 Our Thanks 235 Contents of Online Materials 237 Sources and Notes for Tables and Figures 239 Notes 257 References 281 Index 301 Cartoon Credits 325 viii P r e fa c e to t h e Pa p e r b a c k E d i t i o n Since we wrote this book, the need for it has become steadily more apparent. More and more policy makers now believe that the aim of policy should be to improve the well-being of the people. The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, which first published the internationally comparable measures of GDP, advocates in its June 2016 meeting report, Strategic Orientations of the Secretary-General: For 2016 and Beyond (https://www.oecd.org/mcm/documents /strategic-orientations-of-the-secretary-general-2016.pdf), that we should “put people’s well-being at the centre of governments’ efforts.” And in October 2019, the OECD will hold a major conference of governments interested in making subjective well-being an operational target of their policies. Meantime, New Zealand has already