Does happiness improve welfare economics a lot?

Abstract

The vision that Richard Easterlin had back in the 1970s with its "Does economic growth improve the human lot? Some empirical evidence", that subjective well-being might be the variable economics should look at to assess the welfare gains from economic growth was a "Columbus' egg": no matter how obvious could it be, mainstream economics completely neglected that line of research throughout the twentieth century. This chapter tries to analyse how important is the usage of happiness for the betterment of welfare analysis in economics, contrasting it with both the tools and theoretical apparatus form orthodox welfare economics and the capabilities approach.