期刊名称：Reason Papers : A Journal of Interdisciplinary Normative Studies
印刷版ISSN：0363-1893
出版年度：2010
卷号：32
页码：29-40
出版社：Reason Papers
摘要：We must take seriously the idea that Adam Smith was the first ―happiness‖ theorist in economics. Happiness theory, as put forth by economists such as Robert Frank and Daniel Kahneman,1 holds that the material opulence produced by free markets bears no necessary connection to the happiness of people within those markets; indeed, the opposite is often suggested. As a recent issue of The Economist notes: But a paradox emerges that requires explanation: affluent countries have not got much happier as they have grown richer. From America to Japan, figures for well-being have barely budged. . . . Some economists think the results cast doubt on the long-held verities of their discipline. The dismal science traditionally assumes that people know their own interests, and are best left to mind their own business. How much they work, and what they buy, is their own affair. A properly brought-up economist seeks to explain their decisions, not to quarrel with them. But the new happiness gurus are much less willing to defer to people‘s choices.2
