Education and the economics of happiness

Some excellent useful & interesting work's been going on over the past decade on "happiness economics" - bringing the focus of economic analysis back to its first principles - of measuring value in terms of "utility" - ie the using the term "values" in its broadest sense in terms of what makes peoples lives worthth living, rather than simply what generates greater monetary wealth. In other words, quality of life over standard of living.

Much of this ties in very comfortably with the values-led culture of schools and other public education institutions.

Here's a taste:

The return of happiness as a theme in economics is due to the emergence of a new fact.
Economists themselves has always known that wealth alone does not bring happiness. The often implicit hypothesis underlying economic analysis was that even if wealth or economic well-being did not always bring a “proportional” increase in happiness, it did not would not however entail its diminution.

For this reason, especially in the Anglo-Saxon tradition, economics has confined its concern
to a sphere much less complicated than happiness: that of wealth or (economic) well-being –
realising of course that much of peoples’ happiness depends on non-economic factors such as
relationships and emotions, which have nothing to do with the market.

Luigino Bruni (2004)“The Economics of Happiness”

So -how long will it take for us to incorporate these ideas into political decision-making and educational policy?

Here are some articles that may be of interest if, like me, you are just coming up to speed with these ideas. (Yes, just a quick google search....)

New Economist: The economics of happiness: a progress report

Luigino Bruni (2004) “The Economics of Happiness”

Carol Graham (2005) "The Economics of Happiness"
 
 Betsey Stevenson (2009) What are the economics of happiness?
 
Carol Graham  (2005) Insights on Development from the Economics of Happiness