Happiness: Lessons from a New Science

An unsettling paradox: over fifty years of marked progress yet we are not any happier... Why does a leading economist write a book about `soft stuff' such as happiness? Even more puzzling: why does he title the book "Happiness. Lessons from a new science"? Richard Layard is the founder of a relevant economics research center within the London School of Economics, author of several academic books on topics such as unemployment and inequality. This latest effort of his is truly ground braking and starts from a simple observation: "There is a paradox at the heart of our lives. Most people want more income and strive for it. Yet as Western societies have got richer, their people have become not happier. This is no old wives' tale. It is a fact proven by many pieces of scientific research. As I'll show, we have good ways to measure how happy people are, and all the evidence says that on average people are no happier today than people were fifty years ago. Yet at the same time average incomes have more than doubled. This paradox is equally true for the United States and Britain and Japan". Layard in this book tries to go to the roots of this paradox and in the process makes a strong case for learning how to use the `science of happiness' in our daily lives while supporting the argument to raise this science to the level of public political debate and action. The seven factors that influence happiness Layard points out seven factors that are key to the perception of happiness. They are (listed in order of relevance) 1) family relationships; 2) financial situation; 3) work; 4) community and friends; 5) health. The two additional factors influence all of the first four and are equally relevant: a) personal freedom; b) personal values. The description of these factors articulates some interesting conclusions that may appear as part of `common sense', yet now they are `certified' by official scientific method and research. Here some of them: we are happier when we manage not to be totally self absorbed and we actively manifest an interest towards other people well being; work does not provide us simply with material means to survive, it gives us an intrinsic sense of meaning and satisfaction that has a strong influence on our perception of happiness; the way that we `frame' our daily reality has a strong impact on our perception of happiness; happiness is fundamentally and individualistic value, yet as human beings we have a moral sense that brings us to value other people perceptions of happiness. Layard leverages upon this last assertion in order to stress the importance of beginning to consider happiness as a way to measure the real progress and development of a collectivity (being either a community, a nation or a continent). Measuring happiness to understand the real progress and development... OK! Are economist out or their league?... One of the key chapters of the book is about this thought. Layard states that for a long time the development of

It seems as though there are two really significant problems in economics: one is how we reconcile the conflict between economic progress and ecological preservation and the other is how we can again link up economic progress and increases in welfare, in general levels of happiness. Layard doesn't solve this second problem, doesn't even pretend to. He does, however, do a fabulous job of porting over research on happiness into the realm of economic policy and points readers towards exploring its implications. And he does offer suggestions about how to proceed in solving this problem. For this he should be both read and applauded.

As a non-American it is astonishing to read the distortions of Layard's argument presented in several of the reviews of this book, distortions suggesting that many Americans view any innovative thoughts on government policy and taxation as "communism". Layard shows that unfettered economic growth and scientific change has led to not just rising incomes but to social breakdown in the form of increased divorce rates, crime and alcoholism. These things make people unhappy!! Poor mental health makes people more unhappy than just about anything.Critics of this book should themselves attempt to answer the question, why, above a certain level, do rising incomes not increase happiness rather than rant on about its "communistic" ideas.

This is the book I've been looking for. A noted economist and member of the British House of Lords starts his book with the central premise--how do we create public policies which will increase human happiness and well-being?-and explores the subject from a variety of disciplines. Layard's findings make clear how the Anglo-American policies of the last 30 years have worked to undermine well-being while European social democratic policies are working far better. Most powerful is Layard's assessment of how low taxes actually lead to time poverty and overwork, with tremendous negative impacts for families, friendships, community, health, and other key factors that are the most important underpinnings of happiness. This book makes it clear why consumer society undermines our well-being and must be tamed. We need to begin trading productivity increases for time instead of money and stuff if we are to build a happier, fairer world. All that's missing is the ecological sustainability argument, but it would only further bolster Layard's point of view since our consumer society is clearly ecologically destructive as well. This book should be must-reading for policy makers. It clearly demolishes the arguments of right-wingers who want more tax cutting, etc. After reading it, one should recognize immediately the non-sense at the foundation of the rightwing (especially of the Ayn Rand libertartian variety)agenda. This is the book progressives need to make the case for social democracy and economic justice. Well done, Dr. Layard!!!

Richard Layard provides an excellent review of recent research on what determines human happiness. He interprets this in light of his own committment to a utilitarian philosophy, but most of the research findings he reviews, and the policy conclusions he reaches, should be relevant to readers of a variety of philosophical and religious persuasions. For example, page 64 of the book has a facinating table, attributed to research by John Helliwell, which reports that being divorced, rather than married, has about two-and-a-half times the depressing effect on happiness of losing one-third of your family income. Being unemployed, rather than employed, has about three times the depressing effect of a one-third loss in family income. Even if you are employed, if the general unemployment rate goes up by 10 points, this reduces happiness more than a one-third drop in family income. All of these effects consider a change in one factor, holding all other factors constant. These findings are surprising and important to take into account. They are important to take into account even if you reject the claim of utilitarianism that human happiness should be the be-all and end-all of philosophy and social policy. I should note that Layard is a very well-regarded British economist who has done important work on unemployment issues and benefit-cost analysis of public policies. I suspect that this may be the only book by an economist that discusses how the Buddhist meditation techniques taught by Jon Kabat-Zinn (for example in his book Wherever You Go, There You Are) affect human happiness in a controlled experiment. It turns out that the "treatment group", which meditated for eight weeks, compared to the control group, which did not do so, when interviewed 4 months after the eight week treatment, were happier by 20 percentile points. This is a very large effect.