The Efficiency of Subjective Well-Being: A Key of Latin American Development

Abstract

This chapter compares development of Latin American countries with that of traditionally developed nations, based on several international indicators of well-being and sustainability that have emerged in last decade. It is argued that in Latin America there is a specific type of development, which could be understood as an alternative path to traditional model of social progress. The key to understand this type of development would be the efficiency of subjective well-being: people get high happiness and life satisfaction with lower economic, state and environmental costs than in traditionally developed countries. It is suggested that cohesion and quality of family ties is a key factor to explain this particular form of development: in Latin America family has a relevant role in social security and at same time would be important to explain outstanding levels of subjective well-being.