A theoretical approach to the trident economics, employment and happiness
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.51302/rtss.2016.2132Keywords:
job satisfaction, employment, happiness, utilityAbstract
The study of happiness has been introduced in the economic analysis, generating a new conception of utility that goes beyond the conception of the orthodox economic theory. In labour economics, this idea has led to the incorporation of job satisfaction as critical key of the future of organizations. There is growing empirical evidence linking the welfare of workers with higher productivity and better positioning of companies. Hence the importance of knowing happiness from a theoretical economic perspective, based on the fact that the economics of happiness mainly questions wealth as the main explanatory variable of wellbeing, fact with a direct impact on the flexibility of companies, the structure of wages and work organization. On the basis of the historical background of epicurean hedonism and Aristotle eudemonism, this article presents the theoretical foundations of the economics of happiness, to move from the concept of utility to the concept of happiness, through the expressed preferences and procedural utility to get the key moment: the discovery of the Easterlin Paradox of Happiness. Since then, thanks to the increased availability of data and subjective indicators use by economists, the advances of happiness economics is basically empirical, and focus on the discovery of macroeconomic and microeconomic determinants of happiness, for different groups, countries and time points. Their results show the consistency of this approach as a complement to traditional economic and labour analysis.
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