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Increases in the average national income in a country do not lead to increased happiness over the long term. The explanation comes from the Easterlin Paradox. At any single given point in time, people with higher incomes may be happier than their lower-income counterparts, but over the long term, a higher income does not lead to greater happiness. Concepts, like the Esterlin Paradox, come from a relatively new field of economic study known as happiness economics. Anthony McCanny, a first year PhD student at the Department of Economics, University of Toronto, has found his intellectual home in the discipline.

“Happiness or well-being economics is still a small, growing field,” said Anthony. “Many prominent economists including Angus Deaton, Daniel Kahneman, Carol Graham and Joseph Stiglitz have advocated for the importance of the field and even worked on well-being economics, but it’s still relatively rare to find working economists at university departments who do happiness economics, especially in North America.” [Read more…]