Happiness and Economics or Women of the Praia

Happiness and Economics: How the Economy and Institutions Affect Human Well-Being

Author: Bruno S Frey

Curiously, economists, whose discipline has much to do with human well-being, have shied away from factoring the study of happiness into their work. Happiness, they might say, is an "unscientific" concept. This is the first book to establish empirically the link between happiness and economics--and between happiness and democracy. Two respected economists, Bruno S. Frey and Alois Stutzer, integrate insights and findings from psychology, where attempts to measure quality of life are well-documented, as well as from sociology and political science. They demonstrate how micro- and macro-economic conditions in the form of income, unemployment, and inflation affect happiness. The research is centered on Switzerland, whose varying degrees of direct democracy from one canton to another, all within a single economy, allow for political effects to be isolated from economic effects.

Not surprisingly, the authors confirm that unemployment and inflation nurture unhappiness. Their most striking revelation, however, is that the more developed the democratic institutions and the degree of local autonomy, the more satisfied people are with their lives. While such factors as rising income increase personal happiness only minimally, institutions that facilitate more individual involvement in politics (such as referendums) have a substantial effect. For countries such as the United States, where disillusionment with politics seems to be on the rise, such findings are especially significant. By applying econometrics to a real-world issue of general concern and yielding surprising results, Happiness and Economics promises to spark healthy debate over a wide range of the social sciences.

Financial Times - Elizabeth Bailey

Are we ready to consider that neither money nor medication can buy happiness? Jaded as we are by politician's shenanigans, and fearful of political movements sponsoring terrorism, the authors of this book suggest the answer to happiness may lie in the political process, at least as much as in our own temperament and economic well-being.

Publishers Weekly

Still convinced money doesn't buy happiness? In Happiness & Economics: How the Economy and Institutions Affect Human Well-Being, economists Bruno S. Frey (Inspiring Economics) and Alois Stutzer demonstrate how unemployment and inflation lead to unhappiness and argue that increased happiness comes with increased wealth. While this is no surprise, their next declaration may be. Far more important than wealth to well-being, they say, is democracy. Drawing on research conducted in Switzerland's single-economy, multi-state nation (where levels of democracy vary between cantons) the authors show how participation in governmental procedures and a sense of local autonomy empowers and satisfies people more than a full wallet. ( Dec.) Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information.

Look this: Marching Toward Hell or Hitler the Germans and the Final Solution

Women of the Praia: Work and Lives in a Portuguese Coastal Community

Author: Sally Cooper Col

In this richly detailed, sensitive ethnographic work, Sally Cole takes as her starting point the firsthand accounts of five differently situated Portuguese women, who describe their lives in a rural fishing community on the north coast of Portugal. Skillfully combining these life stories with cultural and economic analysis, Cole radically departs from the picture of women as sexual beings that prevails in the anthropological literature on Europe and the Mediterranean. Her very different strategy--a focus on women as workers--reflects the Portuguese women's own definition of themselves and allows them the strong, resonant voice that is the goal of both the new ethnography and feminist scholarship. From this new perspective, Cole proposes an important critique of the dominant paradigm of southern European gender relations as being embedded in the code of honor and shame. Covering the Salazar years, as well as the period since the 1974 Revolution, Cole shows that fisherwomen of the past enjoyed greater autonomy in work and social relations than do their daughters and granddaughters, who live in a context of increasing commoditization and industrialization. Central to this account is an examination of the changing structure and role of the household as economic production moved to the factory.