“Utility and Happiness” + Other Recent Work on the Economics of Happiness at the University of Michigan Miles Kimball and Robert Willis

Jean-Benoit Rousseau First Ph.D. Dissertation in the in the U of M Economics Department entirely on the Economics of Happiness Understanding the Easterlin Paradox in the U.S. Life Cycle of Happiness for Men and Women

3 Happiness by Income Quintile

Empirics of Hedonic Adaptation “Dynamics of Happiness after Major Life Events in the HRS” – Kimball, Ryan Nunn, Dan Silverman “Unhappiness After Hurricane Katrina” – Kimball, Helen Levy, Fumio Ohtake, Rousseau, Yoshiro Tsutsui “The Dynamics of Happiness: Evidence from Daily Panel Data” – Kimball, Ohtake, Tsutsui Happiness and the 2008 Election – Kimball, Ohtake, Titiunik, Tsutsui

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“Utility and Happiness” by Miles Kimball and Robert Willis 2 Key Ideas 1.Price-Theoretic Approach to Happiness 2.Elation Theory of Happiness

The Price Theoretic Approach to Happiness:

The Elation Theory of Happiness (Happiness = Baseline Mood + Elation) (Lifetime Utility Innovation)

Implication of Both Ideas Combined EITHER The integral of resulting elation measures the size of a life-time utility innovation. OR Preference for happiness will induce departures from expected utility theory – after substituting the function for happiness into the utility function, – even though we assumed expected utility over the ultimate goods (including happiness)

The Price Theoretic Approach to Happiness:

The Elation Theory of Happiness