Over the last decades, empirical research on subjective well-being in the socialsciences has provided a major new stimulus to the discourse on individual happiness.Recently this research has also been linked to economics where reported subjective wellbeingis often taken as a proxy measure for...

In many countries environmental policies and regulations are implemented to improveenvironmental quality and thus individuals’ well-being. However, how do individuals valuethe environment? In this paper, we review the Life Satisfaction Approach (LSA) representinga new non-market valuation...

A framework is proposed for organizing phenomena related to the (mis)predictionof utility, in particular neglecting adaptation. A categorization is introduced that accounts forasymmetries in misprediction. In decision-making, goods and activities satisfying extrinsicdesires are more salient than...

‘Happiness Research’ has attracted a great deal of attention in the social sciences as well as inthe general public. This is reflected by a massive increase in the amount of scholarly work onpeople’s subjective well-being1 and the frequent featuring of happiness research in the media.The...

In many countries, TV viewers have access to more and more TVchannels. We study whether people can cope with this and watch the amount of TVthey find optimal for themselves or whether they are prone to over-consumption. Wefind that heavy TV viewers do not benefit, but instead report lower life...

Neoclassical economic theory rules out systematic errors in consumptionchoice. According to the basic view, individuals know what they choose. They areable to predict how much utility an activity or a good produces for them now and inthe future and they can maximize their utility. This implies...

This study investigates the determinants of economists' life satisfaction. The analysis is based on a survey of professional, mostly academic economists from European countries and beyond. We find that certain features of economists' professional situation influence their well-being. Happiness...

The development of the constitution must be based on the rule of law. Direct democratic rights allow citizens to participate in the amendment process. The direct democratic process of institutional change is theoretically and empirically analyzed. A number of counter arguments and issues for a...