Economics, wellbeing and happiness: a historical perspective

Abstract

The chapter highlights that the ‘happiness transformation problem _ that is, how wealth becomes well-being _ was a central point in some streams of the economic tradition. In particular, the author shows that from Malthus to Pigou this economic tradition paid special attention to non-economic domains important for human happiness and that are affected by market choices. Marshall is seen as the bridge between the classical reflection on happiness in the eighteenth century and the recent debates on the ‘paradoxes of happiness’, an issue that is becoming more and more important, not only in moral philosophy, but also in economics and for relevant policy implications.