Libro: Happiness Around The World. Por Carol Graham

Book Review: Happiness Around the World: The Paradox of Happy Peasants and Miserable Millionaires by Carol Graham Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA (February 8, 2010)
by Grace Corona, University of Ottawa

AUTHOR’S GOAL
In her book “Happiness Around the World: The Paradox of Happy Peasants and Miserable Millionaires”, author Carol Graham attempts to determine what makes people happybased on her research as well as the work of other scholars working in the field of happiness economics. Graham also seeks to identify whether there is a relationship between income and happiness; that is, if more income equals more happiness. Graham also investigates whether this relationship can be proven by asking the following questions: Are individual levels of happiness innate, or can policyand the environment people live in make a difference? Finally, the author aims to gain a more detailed understanding of happiness as a potential policy objective.
The book’s subtitle – Paradox of Happy Peasants and Miserable Millionaires – suggests that money is not related to happiness, but the author’s research finds that wealthier people are indeed happier: “In all contexts, wealthier peopleare, on average, happier than poorer ones” (p. 55). However, she explains that the income-happiness relationship is not linear; that is, while income affects happiness, more income does not result in more happiness. People living in richer countries are happier than those living in poorer countries; however, many things other than income contribute to a person’s happiness, regardless of their levelof income. Many of these things – such as freedom, stable employment, and good health – are easier to attain in wealthier countries, and this is why Graham’s research shows that wealthier people are generally happier than those individuals who are poorer.

METHODS
The book explicitly describes the approach to measure the income-welfare relationship. The measures are based on the results oflarge-scale surveys across thirty-six countries over time, including hundreds of thousands of individuals who are asked to assess their own welfare using several different surveys. Participant countries included the United States (U.S.), Afghanistan, China; several countries from Latin America such as Chile, Mexico and Guatemala; and African countries such as Nigeria and South Africa. Surveysincluded: the World Values Survey, the US General Social Survey, Gallup World Poll, and the Eurobarometro Survey, among others. All surveys included open-ended questions on happiness or life satisfaction. Questions included: “How happy are you with your life?” or “How satisfied are you with your life?” , and were accompanied by a rating scale for responses. Admittedly, a subjective emotion is difficultto measure across different countries and individuals; however, the methods used by Graham provide an opportunity to study the possibility of standardizing the factors, which provide happiness to all people. With this, Graham explores how public policies aiming to increase levels of happiness can be implemented.

DISTANCE
Graham is considered to be one of the pioneers in the area of happinesseconomics (Layard, 2009). Despite the focus on statistical analysis, she maintains an academic style in her writing. Graham is careful to indicate the advantages as well as the challenges of using this data for public policy. Being a pioneer in the area, she is very close to the subject matter and has a great command on the literature. Graham presents a balanced analysis using a variety of sourcessuch as Richard Easterlin and Stefano Pettinato, who are important contributors in this area. Graham has also worked closely with the above mentioned individuals co-authoring a number of books in the field.
The author successfully presents the information in a logical order and limits her opinions to the conclusion at the end of each chapter. Graham also leaves a number of open-ended...