Economic Progress: Without People's Happiness It Is Impossible

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Only in the early 2000’s that economists around the world have started to find a correlation between people’s happiness and its effect on the micro-economy and the macro-economy of a country. Several economists, researchers and even gurus are engaging in researches to determine the level of happiness people obtain from economic activities. This idea seems a little farfetched, but surprising results are obtained from such studies. The study of wellbeing, income changes, life satisfaction, and utility (etc.) in relation to economic growth is becoming of much importance because it helps to establish a good and representative economic model on taxation, pensions, health care, housing scheme, and the evils of unemployment and inflation. There are several ways to tackle the subject of happiness economics, we should consider the macroeconomics, and the microeconomics, and there are two ways to look at the happiness, the objective and the subjective ways.

An objective way to look at the relationship between the economic progress and people’s happiness is to study the numbers. One such number is the GDP – Gross Domestic Profit- the ultimate indicator for the standard of living. As the GDP increases, people are expected to have better standards of living, therefore being happier. (However, GDP is an indicator to standard of living; it is not the measurement of it.) Below is a comparison of the GDP and extreme poverty rate in Mauritius for the year 2002, and ten years later. In 2002, the percentage of people living under the poverty line was 10%, and the GDP for the same year was approximately Rs21000 Million. In 2012, however the percentage of people living under the poverty line was 8.5% and the GDP for the same year (measured in the thir...

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...HUR DOBRIN, (2012), Can you live alone and be happy?, Psychology Today

ZOSIA BIELSKI, (2013), Living Along: A Testament To Freedom Or An Erosion Of Society? , The Globel And Mail.

ADA FERRER-i-CARBONELL, (2011) Happiness Economics,

TRADING ECONOMICS, Web Services (2013), Mauritius GDP Per Capita,

GALLUP NEWS, See online video on YouTube.

INDEX MUNDI, Historical Data – How many people are living below the poverty line in Mauritius,

THE ECONOMICS OF HAPPINESS,

OSWALD, PROTO and SGROI (2009), Happiness and Productivity,
< http://ftp.iza.org/dp4645.pdf>

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