Setting the Scene

Borooah, Vani (2024): Setting the Scene. Published in: Routledge Studies in Development Economics (October 2024): pp. 1-9.

Abstract

This chapter provides an overview of the main themes presented in this book. Most books on happiness are concerned with answering, in their diverse ways, a basic question: how should I live? Such books assume, however, that the path to happiness lies entirely within one’s control. Happiness is simply a matter of doing certain things and refraining from doing certain other things. This book, however, takes a different view. It is that happiness is not always within our control but, instead, prey to the attitudes and actions of others. Following Jean-Paul Sartre’s aphorism, “hell is other people”, the broad theme of this book is that “unhappiness is other people”. In the language of economics, “other” people, through their attitudes and actions, create externalities – generally negative - which serve to make “us” unhappy. The instruments for creating such externalities are intolerance and feelings of envy/superiority. This book expands on this theme in respect of three areas: religion, money, and prejudice.

• Item Type: MPRA Paper
• Language: English
• Keywords: Survey, Happiness, Issues in Welfare
• Subjects: H - Public Economics > H0 - General; I - Health, Education, and Welfare > I0 - General > I00 - General; I - Health, Education, and Welfare > I3 - Welfare, Well-Being, and Poverty

References

Bessone, M. (2013), “Will the Real Tolerant Racist Please Stand Up?”, Journal of Applied Psychology (Special Issue: Toleration and Respect), 30: 209–223.

Borooah, V.K. (2016), Votes, Parties and Seats: A Quantitative Analysis of Indian Parliamentary Elections, 1962–2014, Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.

Carter, I., and Ferretti, M.P. (2013), “Introduction”, Journal of Applied Psychology (Special Issue: Toleration and Respect), 30: 191–194.

Csikszentmihalyi, M. (2002), Flow: The Psychology of Happiness, London: Rider (Penguin Random House).

Dolan, P. (2014), Happiness by Design: Finding Pleasure and Purpose in Everyday Life, London: Penguin Books.

Easterlin, R.A. (1974), “Does Economic Growth Improve the Human Lot? Some Empirical Evidence”, in P.A. David and M.W. Reder (eds.), Nations and Households in Economic Growth: Essays in Honor of Moses Abramovitz, pp. 89–125. New York: Academic Press, Inc.

Easterlin, R.A. (1995), “Will Raising the Incomes of All Increase the Happiness of All?”, Journal of Economic Behaviour and Organisation, 27: 35-47.

Easterlin, R.A. (1996), Growth Triumphant: The Twenty-First Century in Historical Perspective, Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press.

Easterlin, R.A. (2001), “Income and Happiness: Towards a Unified Theory”, Economic Journal, 111: 465–484.

Easterlin, R.A., and O’Connor, K.J. (2020), The Easterlin Paradox, Bonn: IZA Institute of Labor Economics.

Hammersh, D. (2001), “The Changing Nature of Job Satisfaction”, Journal of Human Resources, 36: 1-30.

Ingelhart, R., Basáñez, M., Díez-Medrano, J., Halmn, L., and Luijkx, R. (2004), Human Beliefs and Values: A Cross-cultural Sourcebook based on the 1990–2002 Values Surveys, Buenos Aires: Siglo XXI Editores.

Jaffrelot, C. (2019), Modi’s India: Hindu Nationalism and the Rise of Ethnic Democracy, Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.

Leiter, B. (2008), “Why Tolerate Religion?”, Constitutional Commentary, 25 (1: Spring): 1–28.

Margalit, R. (2023), “Itamar Ben-Gvir, Israel’s Minister of Chaos”, New Yorker, February 20, https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2023/02/27/itamar-ben-gvir-israels-minister-of-chaos (accessed 25 February 2023).

Oswald, M. (1962), Nichomacean Ethics, Indianapolis: Bobbs-Merrill.

Pai, S., and Kumar, S. (2018), Everyday Communalism: Riots in Contemporary Uttar Pradesh, New Delhi: Oxford University Press.

Sartre, J.P. (1947), Huis Clos, Paris: Gallimard

Williams, B. (1996), “Toleration: An Impossible Virtue”, in D. Heyid (ed.), Toleration: An Elusive Virtue, pp. 18–27. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.

Zee, M. (2016), Choosing Sharia? Multiculturalism, Islamic Fundamentalism, and Sharia Councils, The Hague: Eleven International Publishers.