This paper explores the potential of using subjective well-being (SWB) data to valueenvironmental attributes. A theoretical framework compares this method, also known as the lifesatisfaction approach, with the standard hedonic pricing approach, identifying their similarities and differences. As...

The first chapter demonstrates that although it is possible to design utility functions that behave like empirical well-being, the functional forms relying on income adaptation and social comparisons put forward in the happiness literature fail to receive empirical validation. Under the income...

Happiness research is a new, rapidly growing and provocative aspect of economic science. In fact, there are now over 1,800 published papers on the subject, and it might be said that the ‘dismal science’ has come to be obsessed with happiness. This research provides a number of interesting...

This dissertation inquires into the relationship between income, aspirations, and life satisfaction in post-transition Russia. It first explores the channels through which adaptation and social comparison contribute to higher income aspirations. The results show that social comparison is a...