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Objective and Subjective Measures of Happiness

Borooah, Vani (2024): Objective and Subjective Measures of Happiness. Published in: Routledge Series in Development Economics (October 2024): pp. 38-59.

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Abstract

Happiness is usually measured by simply asking people about how happy they are (or, have been in the recent past). The most usual way of doing so is to ask a “happiness question”: ‘Taking all things together, would you say that you are (i) very happy; (ii) quite happy; (iii) not very happy; (iv) not at all happy?’ This subjective measure of happiness, based on a self-assessment of one’s emotional well-being, could, however, be complemented by other, more objective, measures of whether people were happy or unhappy. This chapter does so in respect of two indicators: tranquilliser usage among men and women in Belfast, Northern Ireland; and the propensity to self-harm among persons in the state of Queensland, Australia.

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