Happiness Around the World: The paradox of happy peasants and miserable millionaires

268 Pages·2010·1.67 MB·English

by  Carol Graham

HAPPINESS
aroundtheWorld
This page intentionally left blank
HAPPINESS
around the world
the paradox of happy peasants
and miserable millionaires
CAROL GRAHAM
1
3
GreatClarendonStreet,OxfordOX26DP
OxfordUniversityPressisadepartmentoftheUniversityofOxford.
ItfurtherstheUniversity’sobjectiveofexcellenceinresearch,scholarship,
andeducationbypublishingworldwidein
Oxford NewYork
Auckland CapeTown DaresSalaam HongKong Karachi
KualaLumpur Madrid Melbourne MexicoCity Nairobi
NewDelhi Shanghai Taipei Toronto
Withofficesin
Argentina Austria Brazil Chile CzechRepublic France Greece
Guatemala Hungary Italy Japan Poland Portugal Singapore
SouthKorea Switzerland Thailand Turkey Ukraine Vietnam
OxfordisaregisteredtrademarkofOxfordUniversityPress
intheUKandincertainothercountries
PublishedintheUnitedStates
byOxfordUniversityPressInc.,NewYork
©CarolGraham2009
Themoralrightsoftheauthorhavebeenasserted
DatabaserightOxfordUniversityPress(maker)
Firstpublished2009
Allrightsreserved.Nopartofthispublicationmaybereproduced,
storedinaretrievalsystem,ortransmitted,inanyformorbyanymeans,
withoutthepriorpermissioninwritingofOxfordUniversityPress,
orasexpresslypermittedbylaw,orundertermsagreedwiththeappropriate
reprographicsrightsorganization.Enquiriesconcerningreproduction
outsidethescopeoftheaboveshouldbesenttotheRightsDepartment,
OxfordUniversityPress,attheaddressabove
Youmustnotcirculatethisbookinanyotherbindingorcover
andyoumustimposethesameconditiononanyacquirer
BritishLibraryCataloguinginPublicationData
Dataavailable
LibraryofCongressCataloging-in-PublicationData
Graham,Carol,1962–
Happinessaroundtheworld:theparadoxofhappypeasantsand
miserablemillionaires/CarolGraham.
p. cm.
ISBN 978-0-19-954905-4(hbk.)
1. Economics—Psychologicalaspects. 2. Happiness—Economicaspects.
3. Qualityoflife. 4. Well-being. I. Title.
HB74.P8G73 2009
305.5—dc22 2009041062
TypesetbySPIPublisherServices,Pondicherry,India
PrintedinGreatBritain
onacid-freepaperby
ClaysLtd.,StIvesPlc
ISBN 978-0-19-954905-4
1 3 5 7 9 10 8 6 4 2
Inmemoryofmyfather,
whomasteredtheartoffindinghappiness
intryingtomaketheworldabetterplace
This page intentionally left blank
PREFACE
I could not have written this book without the support and feedback
of any number of wonderful colleagues, both at Brookings and beyond.
Manyofthemprovideddetailedcommentsonspecificchaptersorsections
of the book over the past year or two. These include: Henry Aaron,
George Akerlof, Jere Behrman, Nancy Birdsall, François Bourguignon,
Gary Burtless, Mauricio Cardenas, Andrew Clark, Nicholas Cristakis,
AngusDeaton,ShantaDevarajan,EdDiener,PaulDolan,StevenDurlauf,
Richard Easterlin, Joshua Epstein, Andrew Felton, Chico Ferreira, Cliff
Gaddy, Ross Hammond, Matthew Hoover, Daniel Kahneman, Charles
Kenny, Jeffrey Kling, Robert Litan, Eduardo Lora, Branko Milanovic,
Philip Musgrove, Moises Naim, Andrew Oswald, George Perry, Tom
Schelling,AloisStutzer,TedTruman,andPeytonYoung.Therearealso
sections of the book that draw on papers or articles co-authored with a
numberofveryableresearchassistantsorPh.D.students,whohavesince
goneontobiggerandbetterthings.Ibenefitedgreatlyfromworkingwith
them in the interim. They are: Soumya Chattopadhyay, Andrew Eggers,
Andrew Felton, Matthew Hoover, Stefano Pettinato, Mario Picon, and
SandipSukhtankar.
Therearealsoanumberofpeople,bothatBrookingsandbeyond,who
providedimportantintellectualormoralsupportthroughouttheprocess.
PREFACE
StrobeTalbottgavetheresearchaboostofintellectualandmoralsupport
when he walked into my office on one of his first visits to Brookings in
2002, curious to know why I was studying happiness. He has supported
theresearcheversince.JohnSteinbrunerhasforyearsprovidedintellectual
inspirationforthis,aswellasmuchofmyearlier,research.CarlosPascual
gave the research an enormous vote of confidence when he encouraged
me to return full time to Brookings in 2008, and allowed me to sit in the
RobinsonChair.ChuckRobinsonhimselfhasbeenasupportersincethen.
RichardEasterlinhasbeenanappreciativereaderofvirtuallyanythingthat
Iproduce,andhisfeedbackandkindinvitationstoparticipateinanynum-
berofwonderfulconferencesonhappinesseconomicshavebeeninvaluable.
AlanAngellofOxfordhasneverfailedtoreadapaperorchapterwithout
wonderfully healthy skepticism and constant corrections of grammatical
error(or‘Americanisms’),whichsurelyimprovedtheendproduct.Nancy
TruittoftheTinkerFoundationhasalwaystakenaparticularinterestin
theresearch,andalsomanagedtoengineeressentialfinancialsupportfor
the project at critical junctures. Marta Lagos of the Latinobarometro has
beenexceptionallygenerousinallowingmeconstantaccesstothedataset.
Jim Clifton of the Gallup Organization and his entire team—including
Jim Harter, Gale Muller, and Jesus Rios—have also been generous both
viainterestintheworkandinprovidingaccesstotheGallupWorldPoll
data.
At Brookings, a number of people have provided invaluable adminis-
trative and other forms of support, an often thankless task, which is at
the same time critical to getting anything done. They include Charlotte
Baldwin,YamiFuentes,LindaGianessi,SaraHommel,SunKordel,and
MaggieKozak.AtOxfordUniversityPress,bothSarahCaroandAimee
Wrighthavebeenwonderfullypatientandbrilliantlyhelpful.
viii
PREFACE
Finally,Icannotclosewithoutthankinganumberoffamilymembersand
friendswithoutwhomIcouldnothavegottenthisdone.Theyprovidedme
withinvaluablemoralsupportandfriendship,whetherbydrivingcarpool
at the last minute or just listening to my excitement about having finally
gottendatafromAfghanistanand/orgettingmycrimeregressionstowork.
TheyincludeCharlotteBaldwin,ElizabethDavis,AnitaGrahamandJohn
Schenkel,BertaGilbert,AlecandLaurieGraham,BillHall,MerrillHall,
PamHoehn-Saric,RosaMiranda,MarianneMoxon,andCarolWise.And,
ofcourse,Ihavetothankmythreewonderfulchildren,Alexander,Anna,
andAdrian,whoaretherootsofmyhappiness.Ithankthemforbeingthe
wonderfulindividualsthattheyareandforhavingthecapacitytoanswer
formewhentheyaskedaquestionandIwaspluggedintothecomputer:
‘Iknow,Iknow,youaretryingtofinishyourbook’.
ix