For centuries the pursuit of happiness was the preserve of either the philosopher or the voluptuary and took second place to the basic need to survive on the one hand, and the pressure to conform to social conventions and morality on the other. More recently there is a burgeoning interest in the study of happiness, in the social sciences and in the media. Can we really answer the question what makes people happy? Is it really grounded in credible methods and data? Is there consistency in the determinants of happiness across countries and cultures? Are happiness levels innate to individuals or can policy and the environment make a difference? How is happiness affected by poverty? By economic progress? Is happiness a viable objective for policy? This book is an attempt to answer these questions, based on research on the determinants of happiness in countries around the world, ranging from Peru and Russia to the U.S. and Afghanistan. The book reviews the theory and concepts of happiness, explaining how these concepts underpin a line of research which is both an attempt to understand the determinants of happiness and a tool for understanding the effects of a host of phenomena on human well being. The research finds surprising consistency in the determinants of happiness across levels of development. Yet there is still much debate over the relationship between happiness and income. The book explores the effects of many mediating factors in that relationship, ranging from macroeconomic trends and democracy to inequality and crime. It also reviews what we know about happiness and health and how that relationship varies according to income levels and health status. It concludes by discussing the potential--and the potential pitfalls--of using happiness surveys to contribute to better public policy.

Happiness Around the World: The Paradox of Happy Peasants and Miserable Millionaires

Business & Money

Graham, Carol

Economics

Oxford University Press

For centuries the pursuit of happiness was the preserve of either the philosopher or the voluptuary and took second place to the basic need to survive on the one hand, and the pressure to conform to social conventions and morality on the other. More recently there is a burgeoning interest in the study of happiness, in the social sciences and in the media. Can we really answer the question what makes people happy? Is it really grounded in credible methods and data? Is there consistency in the determinants of happiness across countries and cultures? Are happiness levels innate to individuals or can policy and the environment make a difference? How is happiness affected by poverty? By economic progress? Is happiness a viable objective for policy? This book is an attempt to answer these questions, based on research on the determinants of happiness in countries around the world, ranging from Peru and Russia to the U.S. and Afghanistan. The book reviews the theory and concepts of happiness, explaining how these concepts underpin a line of research which is both an attempt to understand the determinants of happiness and a tool for understanding the effects of a host of phenomena on human well being. The research finds surprising consistency in the determinants of happiness across levels of development. Yet there is still much debate over the relationship between happiness and income. The book explores the effects of many mediating factors in that relationship, ranging from macroeconomic trends and democracy to inequality and crime. It also reviews what we know about happiness and health and how that relationship varies according to income levels and health status. It concludes by discussing the potential-and the potential pitfalls-of using happiness surveys to contribute to better public policy.

The Arab Spring constitutes perhaps the most far-reaching political and economic transition since the end of communism in Europe. For too long, the economic aspirations of the people in the region, especially young people, have been ignored by leaders in Arab countries and abroad. Competing views as to how best to meet these aspirations are now being debated in the region. The outcome will shape Arab societies for generations to come. The authors of this book argue that significant economic reforms must accompany the major political transitions that are underway. Although each country has a different economic structure and history and must make its own way forward, there are spill-overs from trade and investment linkages, the contagion of news cycles, interaction of people and sharing of expectations that are too great to ignore. Some common foundation of the new Arab economies is needed. Towards that end, this volume addresses four central challenges of economic reform in the Arab world. First, with two-thirds of the population under the age of 30, the disproportionate burdens of unemployment and poor education can no longer be heaped on youth. Second, while some government policies may have improved the living standards of Arab citizens in the past, they have also entrenched cronies, enriched a small elite, and become unaffordable. Third, if Arab economies are to compete in the 21st century they cannot depend solely on oil and gas money, remittances, and tourism, but will require active, independent private sectors. And finally, the relative isolation of Arab economies--both from each other and from the world--must end. Rather than providing specific lists of recommendations, this book sets forth a set of guidelines and priorities for reformers who will begin creating new opportunities for youth, rebuilding the institutions of the state, diversifying the private sector, and cooperating with each other and integrating with the world economy.

After the Spring: Economic Transitions in the Arab World

Kaufmann, Daniel

Dervis, Kemal

Galal, Ahmed

Amin, Magdi

Assaad, Ragui

al-Baharna, Nazar

Desai, Raj M.

Dhillon, Navtej S.

Ghanem, Hafez

How the optimism gap between rich and poor is creating an increasingly divided society
The Declaration of Independence states that all people are endowed with certain unalienable rights, and that among these is the pursuit of happiness. But is happiness available equally to everyone in America today? How about elsewhere in the world? Carol Graham draws on cutting-edge research linking income inequality with well-being to show how the widening prosperity gap has led to rising inequality in people's beliefs, hopes, and aspirations.
For the United States and other developed countries, the high costs of being poor are most evident not in material deprivation but rather in stress, insecurity, and lack of hope. The result is an optimism gap between rich and poor that, if left unchecked, could lead to an increasingly divided society. Graham reveals how people who do not believe in their own futures are unlikely to invest in them, and how the consequences can range from job instability and poor education to greater mortality rates, failed marriages, and higher rates of incarceration. She describes how the optimism gap is reflected in the very words people use―the wealthy use words that reflect knowledge acquisition and healthy behaviors, while the words of the poor reflect desperation, short-term outlooks, and patchwork solutions. She also explains why the least optimistic people in America are poor whites, not poor blacks or Hispanics.
Happiness for All? highlights the importance of well-being measures in identifying and monitoring trends in life satisfaction and optimism―and misery and despair―and demonstrates how hope and happiness can lead to improved economic outcomes.

Happiness for All?: Unequal Hopes and Lives in Pursuit of the American Dream

Princeton University Press

Review\n"With Happiness for All?, Carol Graham takes the study of the new inequality one step deeper. She tells what it means from the perspective of those who suffer from it, as she explores, from many different angles, how it affects Americans' sense of well-being, and their place within the American dream. This is a very important book, on the deepest social problem facing the United States today."―George Akerlof, Nobel Laureate in Economics\n"Carol Graham uses well-being measures to bring new insights to the divisions that are threatening America. Far from dreaming of a better tomorrow, many Americans, especially white Americans, are deeply pessimistic about their future and the futures of their children. This book brings much to think and to worry about."―Angus Deaton, Nobel Laureate in Economics\n"A convincing case that perceptions of well-being, including factors like stress and a sense of the value of one's life, have become far more negative for poorer Americans."―Jeff Madrick, New York Review of Books\n"[Graham's] important new book is the empirical version of Hillbilly Elegy."―Peter R. Orszag, Bloomberg Opinion\nHow the optimism gap between rich and poor is creating an increasingly divided society\nThe Declaration of Independence states that all people are endowed with certain unalienable rights. Among them is the pursuit of happiness. But is happiness available equally to everyone in America? How about elsewhere in the world? Carol Graham draws on cutting-edge research linking income inequality with well-being to show how the widening prosperity gap has led to rising inequality in people's beliefs, hopes, and aspirations. The result is an optimism gap between rich and poor that, if left unchecked, could lead to an increasingly divided society. Happiness for All? highlights the importance of well-being measures in identifying and monitoring trends in life satisfaction and optimism, and demonstrates how hope and happiness can lead to improved economic outcomes.

Review\n“People who have hope also have a better future. Thanks to Carol Graham, we now have empirical evidence that hopefulness and not just objective circumstances matter, often in surprising ways. Read this book to learn more not just about the power of hope but about an entire body of work to which she has so ably and persistently contributed.”―Isabel Sawhill, author of Forgotten Americans\n“In this study of hope and despair, Carol Graham once again applies her economist’s empirical perspective to people’s internal feelings, a hitherto verboten subject in economics. A truly pathbreaking volume!”―Richard A. Easterlin, University of Southern California\n“If you care about improving people’s lives, this is the book for you. Hope is crucial for starting that journey. Graham explains what all of us―and governments and businesses―must do to reach the goal of better well-being for all.”―Gus O’Donnell, former Cabinet Secretary, United Kingdom\n“This fine book fills a yawning gap. Hope, as it shows, is vital for well-being and for effective living. So who is hopeful and why? Read the book.”―Richard Layard, author of Happiness: Lessons from a New Science\n“In this remarkable book, Carol Graham, a distinguished researcher in the field of human well-being, takes us in a strikingly new direction. Her evidence unveils the vital role that hope plays in our lives.”―Andrew Oswald, University of Warwick\n“Here is a thoughtful, evidence-based, thoroughly readable treatise on the nature of hope. Graham ties high ‘deaths of despair’ among white, low-income Americans to their lack of hope and personal agency; for them America’s Horatio Alger myth of individually driven progress is a heavy burden. The contrast with less well-off but more hopeful Black Americans is striking. Survey results in Peru, St. Louis, and elsewhere show the policy logic of periodically taking a society’s temperature.”―Nancy Birdsall, founding president of the Center for Global Development\nWhy hope matters as a metric of economic and social well-being\nIn a society marked by extreme inequality of income and opportunity, why should economists care about how people feel? The truth is that feelings of well-being are critical metrics that predict future life outcomes. In this timely and innovative account, economist Carol Graham argues for the importance of hope―little studied in economics at present―as an independent dimension of well-being. Given America’s current mental health crisis, thrown into stark relief by COVID, hope may be the most important measure of well-being, and researchers are tracking trends in hope as a key factor in understanding the rising numbers of “deaths of despair” and premature mortality.\nGraham, an authority on the study of well-being, points to empirical evidence demonstrating that hope can improve people’s life outcomes and that despair can destroy them. These findings, she argues, merit deeper exploration. Graham discusses the potential of novel well-being metrics as tracking indicators of despair, reports on new surveys of hope among low-income adolescents, and considers the implications of the results for the futures of these young adults.\nGraham asks how and why the wealthiest country in the world has such despair. What are we missing? She argues that public policy problems―from joblessness and labor force dropout to the lack of affordable health care and inadequate public education―can’t be solved without hope. Drawing on research in well-being and other disciplines, Graham describes strategies for restoring hope in populations where it has been lost. The need to address despair, and to restore hope, is critical to America’s future.

The Power of Hope: How the Science of Well-Being Can Save Us from Despair

Economists are increasingly using happiness surveys to study a host of questions, ranging from the happiness effects of health and marriage to the unhappiness effects of unemployment, divorce, and even commuting time. Carol Graham was a pioneer in the economic study of happiness, and she has been involved from the beginning in discussions about applying this approach to economic policymaking.
In this straightforward and accessible book, Graham explores what we know about the determinants of happiness across and within countries of different development levels, including some counterintuitive and surprising relationships. She then raises the challenges posed by the use of these measures as comparative indicators. Foremost among these are the extent to which people can adapt to adversity and still report to be happy (the "happy peasant and frustrated achiever" problem) and the need for clarity on the definition of happiness.
Centuries ago, the study of happiness was of great interest to economists and philosophers such as Adam Smith and Jeremy Bentham. As the economics profession turned more toward quantitative methods, however, the approach fell out of fashion. Over a century later, economists are circling back, and research on happiness has entered the mainstream. There are a number of efforts underway to develop national level well-being measures. The objective is to develop metrics that can be compared within and across countries and ultimately used as complements to traditional income and GDP data.
A definition of well-being that is broader than income could lead to improved understanding of poverty and the development process. But what are the components of such a metric, and should greater happiness become a specific policy goal? Should we be using happiness measures as a guide to development policies? These are the critical issues addressed in this book.
Contents 1. Happiness: A New Science? 2. What Do We Mean by "Happiness," and Why Does it Matter? 3. Happiness around the World: What We Know Now 4. Adaptation and Other Puzzles 5. Happiness Rather than GDP?

The Pursuit of Happiness: Toward An Economy of Well-Being (Brookings Focus)

Brookings Institution Press

During the recent transition to democracy in Chile, one of the most divisive issues has been the extent of poverty and the appropriate government response. As in the debate over human rights violations, at issue are the extent and severity of the problem, with ideology playing a major role in the positions taken. In the case of poverty, there is disagreement not only over measurement, but even more so over the fundamental principles underlying the design of social welfare policy in general. Proponents of neo-liberal economic thought see poverty as a direct result of individuals' inability to participate in the market economy and believe it can be resolved by meeting their basic needs. Most critics define poverty and its causes much more broadly and take into account socioeconomic structural and cultural factors. While these concepts are not necessarily at odds with each other, the resulting policy prescriptions tend to conflict.One explanation for the divisive nature of the debate on poverty in Chile is the nature of the regime that implemented the country's dramatic process of economic structural reform. Chile's steady growth rates, low inflation, and liberal trade and investment regimes are now looked upon as models for the rest of Latin America. Its political legacy, however, presents a paradox.

From Emergency Employment to Social Investment: Alleviating Poverty in Chile (Brookings Occasional Papers)

Brookings Inst Pr

Private Markets for Public Goods: Raising the Stakes in Economic Reform

This book studies the effects of incorporating market incentives into the public goods arena. Carol Graham examines the effects of market-based strategies on the performance of public institutions, the political sustainability of market reforms, and equity. In so doing, she examines a variety of reform experiences in the realms of education, health, social security, and state- owned enterprises and across a range of country and income contexts, with case studies drawn from Latin America, Africa, and Eastern Europe.The studies show that the incorporation of new market incentives, such as vouchers in education and private social security systems, can have positive effects on the performance of public institutions. The effects on equity are less clear, however, and in many cases efficiency gains entail short-term equity losses. The poorest sectors are usually least equipped to take advantage of new incentives and may be marginalized from the reforms and lose access to essential services. Yet in the long-term, negative equity effects are usually counter-balanced by the benefits of enhancing the performance of public institutions. As this book makes clear, the issues explored have relevance for advanced industrial societies as well as for developing economies.

Passion! in Park Slope (Brooklyn Murder Mysteries)

Literature & Fiction

Genre Fiction

Quixote Publishing

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Graham, Carol. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Books by Graham, Carol

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Graham, Carol. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Happiness Around the World: The Paradox of Happy Peasants and Miserable Millionaires

Happiness Around the World: The Paradox of Happy Peasants and Miserable Millionaires

After the Spring: Economic Transitions in the Arab World

Happiness for All?: Unequal Hopes and Lives in Pursuit of the American Dream

Happiness for All?: Unequal Hopes and Lives in Pursuit of the American Dream

The Power of Hope: How the Science of Well-Being Can Save Us from Despair

The Pursuit of Happiness: Toward An Economy of Well-Being (Brookings Focus)

From Emergency Employment to Social Investment: Alleviating Poverty in Chile (Brookings Occasional Papers)

Private Markets for Public Goods: Raising the Stakes in Economic Reform

Passion! in Park Slope (Brooklyn Murder Mysteries)