Happiness and hardship : opportunity and insecurity in new market economies / Carol Graham, Stefano Pettinato.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Graham, Carol, 1962-

Contributor:

Pettinato, Stefano.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Income distribution--Psychological aspects.

Income distribution.

Economic development--Psychological aspects.

Economic development.

Happiness.

Income distribution--Latin America--Psychological aspects.

Psychological aspects.

Latin America.

Physical Description:

xi, 174 pages : illustrations ; 24 cm

Other Title:

Happiness & harship

Place of Publication:

Washington, D.C. : Brookings Institution Press, 2002.

Summary:

Why are some societies able to weather significant economic hardship and still maintain political and social stability, while others break apart in the face of even minor economic declines? Why do some societies with high levels of income inequality broadly support market policies, while those with fewer disparities are harsh critics of such policies and their implications for income distribution? In Happiness and Hardship, Carol Graham and Stefano Pettinato argue that the political sustainability of market-oriented growth is determined as much by relative income levels and trends as by absolute ones, as much by opportunity and mobility over time as by current distribution patterns. They believe that subjective assessments of, and expectations for, economic progress importantly affect individual responses to economic incentives and attitudes to market policies.

Subjective well-being has long been the province of the behavioral sciences, but Graham and Pettinato illustrate how this literature also has great relevance to economists and political scientists, calling into question standard assumptions about the role of rational, material self-interest in determining economic behavior. Using data from seventeen Latin American countries -- including their own detailed survey data on mobility and subjective well-being in Peru -- and from Russia, they analyze the relationship between objective economic conditions and perceived well-being and explore possible links between these findings and attitudes about market policies and democracy. This path-breaking book provides a new conceptual framework for analyzing the relationship between subjective well-being, or happiness, and the political sustainability of market-oriented growth in countries where markets are newly emerging.

Contents:

New approaches to old inequities: mobility, opportunity, and subjective well-being

Mobility, subjective well-being, and public perceptions: stuck in the tunnel or moving up the ladder?

Concepts and trends in income mobility

Happiness, markets, and democracy: Latin America, Russia, and the United States

Frustrated achievers: mobility trends and subjective well-being

Frustrated achievers in a global economy: challenges for policy and for future research.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

081570240X

0815702418

OCLC:

47900636