How To Measure Happiness?

“It is time our statistical system put more emphasis on measuring the well-being of the population than on measuring economic production” noted the Stiglitz Commission in September 2009 in its Report on the Measurement of Economic Performance and Social Progress. “For there is a growing disparity between the information conveyed by aggregated GDP data and the data that are really of importance for the well-being of individuals.” Used wrongly, adds the Commission, GDP can even lead to a “skewed view” of economic realities.
Should we put an end, then, to measuring economic production as a way of assessing the wealth of a nation, and attend to the “pursuit of happiness” instead? Matters are not so simple, replies Pierre Le Roy in this article, reminding us that the members of the Stiglitz Commission are not the first to contest the relevance of GDP, a measure which, despite many critiques, is still the key indicator today for economists, “who are lazily content with it”.
Why is this? “GDP has no credible rival… It is very difficult to achieve agreement on fashioning a different instrument that comes closer to the measurement of well-being”, observes Pierre Le Roy. In order to clarify the debate, Le Roy, recalling the failings of GDP and the conclusions of the Stiglitz Report, gives an account of the main research on this theme and the various methods devised for measuring individual and collective happiness.