The economics of happiness : how the Easterlin Paradox transformed our understanding of well being and progress Part 1. Introduction Chapter 1. The Relevance of Richard Easterlin’s Groundbreaking Work. A Historical Perspective (Mariano Rojas) Part 2. Income and Happiness Chapter 2. The Easterlin Paradox Revisited: Who is Right (Maarten Vendrik) Chapter 3. Relative Income Subjective Wellbeing and the Easterlin Paradox: Intra and Inter national Comparisons (Arthur Grimes) Chapter 4. Relative Income in Latin America (Mariano Rojas) Part 3. Happiness in Welfare Economics Chapter 5. Does Happiness Improve Welfare Economics a Lot (Gabriel Leite Mota) Chapter 6. The Easterlin Paradox from the Perspective of Scitovsky’s The Joyless Economy (Maurizio Pugno) Part 4. Happiness in Development Chapter 7. It’s not the Economy Stupid! Shifting Policies from Economic Growth to Social Capital and Happiness (Stefano Bartolini) Chapter 8. Homo Economics and Happiness: Towards more Sustainable Development (Martin Binder) Chapter 9. Keynes Grandchildren and Easterlins Paradox: What is Keeping us from Reducing our Working Hours (Johannes Hirata) Chapter 10. Using Well Being Metrics to Assess Social Well Being and Ill Being: Lessons from Rising Mortality Rates in the United States (Carol Graham) Part 5. Social Foundations of Happiness Chapter 11. When does the Weight of Expectations hit Children And are They Peer Oriented (Paul Frijters) Chapter 12. Social Foundations of the Life Course of Happiness (John F. Helliwell) Part 6. Happiness along the Life Course Chapter 13. Born to be Mild Cohort Effects don’t (fully) Explain why Well being is U shaped in Age (Andrew E. Clark) Chapter 14. Do Modern Humans Suffer a Psychological Low in Midlife Two Approaches (With and Without Controls) in Seven Data Sets (David G. Blanchflower ) Part 7. Happiness in Economics Chapter 15. Inequality Aversion and Risk Attitudes (Ada Ferrer i Carbonell ) Chapter 15. Inequality Aversion and Risk Attitudes (Ada Ferrer i Carbonell) Chapter 16. Happiness and Lottery Wins (Andrew J. Oswald) Part 8. Happiness in Politics Chapter 17. The Subjective Well being Political Paradox: Evidence from Latin America (Anke C. Plagnol) This book presents a panoramic view of the implications from Richard Easterlins groundbreaking work on happiness and economics. Contributions in the book show the relevance of the Easterlin Paradox to main areas such as the relationship between income and happiness the relationship between economic growth and well being conceptions of progress and development design and evaluation of policies for well being and the use of happiness research to address welfare economics issues. This book is unique in the sense that it gathers contributions from senior and top researchers in the economics of happiness whom have played a central role in the consolidation of happiness economics as well as promising young scholars showing the current dynamism and consolidation of happiness economics.