Happiness and the human development index: Australia is not a paradox
In Happiness and the Human Development Index: The Paradox of Australia, Blanchflower and Oswald (2005) observe an apparent puzzle: they claim that Australia ranks highly in the Human Development Index (HDI), but relatively poorly in happiness. However, when we compare their happiness data with the H...
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ftzbwkiel:oai:econstor.eu:10419/33171 2023-12-31T10:08:19+01:00 Happiness and the human development index: Australia is not a paradox Leigh, Andrew Wolfers, Justin 2006 http://hdl.handle.net/10419/33171 eng eng Bonn: Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA) Series: IZA Discussion Papers No. 1916 gbv-ppn:512076219 http://hdl.handle.net/10419/33171 http://www.econstor.eu/dspace/Nutzungsbedingungen ddc:330 I31 O57 happiness life satisfaction Human Development Index income Australia Entwicklungsindikator Welt Australien doc-type:workingPaper 2006 ftzbwkiel 2023-12-04T00:45:47Z In Happiness and the Human Development Index: The Paradox of Australia, Blanchflower and Oswald (2005) observe an apparent puzzle: they claim that Australia ranks highly in the Human Development Index (HDI), but relatively poorly in happiness. However, when we compare their happiness data with the HDI, Australia appears happier, not sadder, than its HDI score would predict. This conclusion also holds when we turn to a larger cross-national dataset than the one used by Blanchflower and Oswald, when we analyse life satisfaction in place of happiness, and when we measure development using GDP per capita in place of the HDI. Indeed, in the World Values Survey, only one other country (Iceland) has a significantly higher level of both life satisfaction and happiness than Australia. Our findings accord with numerous cross-national surveys conducted since the 1940s, which have consistently found that Australians report high levels of wellbeing. Report Iceland EconStor (German National Library of Economics, ZBW) |
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EconStor (German National Library of Economics, ZBW) |
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English |
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ddc:330 I31 O57 happiness life satisfaction Human Development Index income Australia Entwicklungsindikator Welt Australien |
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ddc:330 I31 O57 happiness life satisfaction Human Development Index income Australia Entwicklungsindikator Welt Australien Leigh, Andrew Wolfers, Justin Happiness and the human development index: Australia is not a paradox |
topic_facet |
ddc:330 I31 O57 happiness life satisfaction Human Development Index income Australia Entwicklungsindikator Welt Australien |
description |
In Happiness and the Human Development Index: The Paradox of Australia, Blanchflower and Oswald (2005) observe an apparent puzzle: they claim that Australia ranks highly in the Human Development Index (HDI), but relatively poorly in happiness. However, when we compare their happiness data with the HDI, Australia appears happier, not sadder, than its HDI score would predict. This conclusion also holds when we turn to a larger cross-national dataset than the one used by Blanchflower and Oswald, when we analyse life satisfaction in place of happiness, and when we measure development using GDP per capita in place of the HDI. Indeed, in the World Values Survey, only one other country (Iceland) has a significantly higher level of both life satisfaction and happiness than Australia. Our findings accord with numerous cross-national surveys conducted since the 1940s, which have consistently found that Australians report high levels of wellbeing. |
format |
Report |
author |
Leigh, Andrew Wolfers, Justin |
author_facet |
Leigh, Andrew Wolfers, Justin |
author_sort |
Leigh, Andrew |
title |
Happiness and the human development index: Australia is not a paradox |
title_short |
Happiness and the human development index: Australia is not a paradox |
title_full |
Happiness and the human development index: Australia is not a paradox |
title_fullStr |
Happiness and the human development index: Australia is not a paradox |
title_full_unstemmed |
Happiness and the human development index: Australia is not a paradox |
title_sort |
happiness and the human development index: australia is not a paradox |
publisher |
Bonn: Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA) |
publishDate |
2006 |
url |
http://hdl.handle.net/10419/33171 |
genre |
Iceland |
genre_facet |
Iceland |
op_relation |
Series: IZA Discussion Papers No. 1916 gbv-ppn:512076219 http://hdl.handle.net/10419/33171 |
op_rights |
http://www.econstor.eu/dspace/Nutzungsbedingungen |
_version_ |
1786840989298589696 |