Book Details

Subjective well being, or happiness, has been analyzed in detail by psychologists for decades. Yet only recently has it become the subject of economic analysis. In Happiness and Hardship, Carol Graham and Stefano Pettinato provide a new conceptual framework for analyzing the relationship between subjective well being and the political sustainability of market-oriented economic growth in 17 Latin American countries and Russia. Several variables --such as marital status, employment, and inflation --are known to influence happiness. Graham and Pettinato have identified other variables that have important effects on how individuals perceive their well being: macroeconomic volatility, globalization of information, increasing income mobility, and inequality driven by technology-led growth.

An age-old puzzle is why some societies seem to tolerate significant degrees of economic hardship and yet retain political and social stability, while others break out into violent protest as a result of much smaller economic declines or shocks. Happiness and Hardship sheds new light on factors that can increase mobility and provide new opportunities for low-income people in developing economies, and possibly improve perceived, as well as actual, well being.

Carol Graham is a senior fellow in the Economic Studies program and codirector of the Center on Social and Economic Dynamics at the Brookings Institution.

Stefano Pettinato is a senior research analyst at the Brookings Institution.