Easterlin and O'Connor (PNAS 2022) have investigated which economic, social, political, and ecological factors explain long-run (36-year) changes in European countries' happiness (life satisfaction). Considering six potential predictors advanced in the pertinent literature, they found only...

Easterlin and O'Connor (PNAS 2022) have investigated which economic, social, political, and ecological factors explain long-run (36-year) changes in European countries' happiness (life satisfaction). Considering six potential predictors advanced in the pertinent literature, they found only...

In Europe differences among countries in the overall change in happiness since the early 1980s have been due chiefly to the generosity of welfare state programs— increasing happiness going with increasing generosity and declining happiness with declining generosity. This is the principal...