What does happiness mean to us when the ferocity of covid wave hit the lives of the people ? Not a single day passes without hearing the loss of a person we know. What does happiness matter to a migrant worker who lost his job and income? an average middle-class family who lost their bread winner ? a poorer household without three square meals a day?? Happiness is squandered when Covid withered huge psychological and emotional turmoil in the minds of people in all walks of life. SARS-CoV-2 has its origin in China and rapidly spread to countries across Europe where there is high human development and better institutions to combat the menace. However, further spread to developing countries was beyond the control of its institutions. Developing world is known for less human development and it plunged into crisis like never before, economically and psychologically.
This human tragedy
unfolds the fact that, as the death toll rise,
only human life is important, nothing
else! Although the economic policy makers are focused on wellbeing
of the people, the current state of the country negatively
impacts people’s happiness. Economists always correlate individual
happiness with income Cantril (1965) . Richard Easterlin (1974)
explained the paradoxical situation of Income and happiness.
Philosophers like Aristotle says happiness is a virtue,
and it is the noblest thing in the world. Thus, economists and philosopher’s
enquire happiness in the lives of the people.
How economics inspires happiness?
What makes people happy in life is a crucial question
in happiness research.
It relates subject matter of Economics
with life, or one may call it ‘Economics
of life’ deviating from the neoclassical or mainstream economics.
The works by Amartya Sen, Martha Nussbaum, Richard Easterlin, Tibor
Scitovsky etc are leading to an enquiry into the nature of wellbeing
of people than an enquiry of nature and scope of creation of
wealth. Prof. Amartya Sen tried to look at the wellbeing and
happiness of the people from a development perspective.
The debatable questions in
happiness research start from the premises of ‘are you
happy’, what are the determinants of happiness. The determinants of happiness
include (1) Personality and demographic factors such as age, gender,
attainment of education, political and religious factors, size of household,
marital status and health of the individuals. (2) Micro- and
macroeconomic
factors such as income, unemployment and inflation.
(3) Institutions. Institutions are responsible for the wellbeing and
happiness of the people.
Effect
of Institutions on Happiness
Empirical studies based on World
Value Surveys(WVS) shows the relation between overall
happiness and institutions, Veenhoven (1993) and Diener
et al., (1995). It is bit difficult to isolate the effect
of institutions on reported individual well-being and happiness
because the countries differ significantly in a great variety of
aspects. In poor countries, the probability of recording the highest category
of happiness increases with GDP per capita, and not with the
institutions. Easterlin (1995) observes that in developed countries
average happiness does not increase with the
spike in per capita GDP over time. On contrary, the developing world
has not attained significant change in the institutional quality over the last
decades, but they tried to advance economically to some
extent. Poorer countries like Malawi still fighting with malaria and
smallpox, then it is not surprising to watch that the average happiness in
these countries have not changed much over time. As a general rule, people
living in developed countries with
a high level of human development with better
institutions tend to be happier.
But, in the scenario of a
pandemic, the happiness definition changes. How much income a typical
individual would need to achieve a level of happiness to compensate
the loss in wellbeing resulted due to pandemic? Happiness is related
to good institutions and wellbeing of the people and good institutions can make
people happy. It is not about so much of wealth creation,
but public happiness is important.
Can Government Policy bring
Happiness ?
Happiness
is considered as a determinant of economic outcomes: it
enhances productivity, labour market performance and national output
Bryson et al. (2016) and Piekalkiewicz (2017). Advocates of happiness economics
assert that maximising happiness is the art
of policymaking. In order to ensure well-being and
happiness, institutions play a crucial role and there is a link
between institutions and individual behaviour. Common man is happy when they
meet basic need, away from infections and diseases and
assured vaccine - a universal public good. Like vaccine,
happiness is also a public good. We can’t be happy
without spreading happiness in the lives of people.
A part of this article is carried
in the Christ University, Dehi NCR college magazine 2021
.
Good article mam
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