The Origins of Happiness

Social Norms and Institutions

Opponents of the well- being approach to public pol-

icy often argue that it would lead to an excessively nanny

state where people had lost control over their own lives.

Nothing could be further from the truth. For the evidence

is overwhelming: people are not happy when they are not

free.

100

95

90

85

80

75

70

65

60

55

50

45

40

35

30

Mean of percent happy and percent satised with lif

e as a whole

GNP/capita (World Bank purchasing power parity estimates, 1995 U.S. $)

1000 5000 9000 13,000 17,000 21,000 25,000

Austria

Indicates Protestant

and ex-Communist

Former members of

USSR in italics.

Former

Communist

societies

Historically Protestant societies

Uruguay

Argentina

Colombia

Mexico

Dom. Rep.

Brazil

China

Philippines

Poland

SloveniaCzech

Croatia

Yugo- Hungary

slavia

Romania

Peru

Azerbaijan

Georgia Lithuania

Armenia

Russia Russia

Ukraine

Belarus

Moldova

Slovakia

Bulgaria

Spain

Portugal

Puerto Rico

S. Korea

Taiwan

Chile

Venezuela

Ghana

Nigeria

Bang-

ladesh Pakistan

Turkey

S. Africa

India

Italy

France

Japan

Ireland

New

Zealand

Finland

N.

Ireland

Australia

Nether-

lands

Iceland

Sweden

Belgium

Switzerland

U.S.A.

BritainCanada

W. Germany

Denmark

Norway

Macedonia

E.

Germany

Latvia

Estonia

Figure 8.2. Subjective well- being by level of economic development and historical heritage of
given societies, ca. 1990