Happiness from Perspective of Poverty Studies

Abstract

This paper is an attempt to approach the notion of “happiness” from the perspective of poverty studies. In doing so, a clear distinction should be made between subjective happiness and well-being. The former is a feeling of happiness as perceived by individuals and it can be measured using opinion surveys. The latter is a multi-dimensional concept of one's living standard, including dimensions such as health, economic standing, education, and social participation. Poverty studies traditionally stay away from subjective happiness, because people tend to ‘adopt’ their preferences. The concept of well-being looks similar to the definition of poverty, especially that being defined as relative deprivation, which is also multi-dimensional. However, poverty studies focus on economic constraints as determining factors in comparison to other dimensions, while the well-being index places economic constraints in parallel to other dimensions.