Economy and happiness: Questioning relationships

Abstract

Happy and satisfied people should definitely be in the center of interest of every state. There is no doubt that even today, economists and politicians lightly associate people's happiness with macroeconomic outcomes. The logic is not unfounded, but it is too simplistic and even partly inaccurate for the simple reason that it is based on the belief that economic growth (gross domestic product, GDP) and macroeconomic stability (public finances, prices, exchange rates) bring an increase in income and decline unemployment, and that it is crucial for citizens to be satisfied. However, GDP growth in a country does not necessarily provide greater satisfaction or, more simply, the happiness of citizens, which confirms a large number of empirical studies (the well-known Easterlin paradox). Broadly (and more correctly), the degree of happiness depends on health (physical and mental), corruption, air pollution, education, crime rates and a sense of security, the quality of public services, social relations and the like. As scientific methods , a descriptive method was used to describe the problem, data and characteristics of the observed phenomena and processes, and a method of generalization for making general conclusions. Overall, the results showed once again why the Scandinavian countries are the happiest countries in the world, precisely because they are always best ranked according to all the most popular and most frequently used indicators that measure SWB globally.