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Economics and Well-Being

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Encyclopedia of Personality and Individual Differences

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Definition

Economics and well-being is the study and measurement of welfare at both the individual and societal level. Traditionally, economists have measured well-being indirectly, by observing the choices people make in markets. More recently, as a result of advances in behavioral economics and availability of data, economists are measuring people’s preferences as expressed in subjective surveys.

Introduction

The economic analysis of well-being has been criticized for focusing too narrowly on material well-being. Although economists have always recognized that happiness (a term used interchangeably with utility, satisfaction, welfare, and well-being) is not solely derived from being financially well-off, the inherent difficulty of measuring well-being and theoretical results that rationalize money-metric measures of utility led to the use of income measures as substitutes for well-being in economic analysis. Recent advances in behavioral economics and in the measurement of well-being...

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Management and Organizational Studies, The University of Western Ontario, London, ON, Canada

    Daniel Brou

Authors
  1. Daniel Brou
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Correspondence to Daniel Brou .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Oakland University, Rochester, USA

    Virgil Zeigler-Hill

  2. Oakland University, Rochester, USA

    Todd K. Shackelford

Section Editor information

  1. Western University, Canada http://link.springer.com/referencework/10.1007/978-3-319-28099-8

    Julie Schermer

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Brou, D. (2016). Economics and Well-Being. In: Zeigler-Hill, V., Shackelford, T. (eds) Encyclopedia of Personality and Individual Differences. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-28099-8_747-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-28099-8_747-1

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-319-28099-8

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