Happiness

Group D12 Abhishek Kalia Vikas Reddy Sudeep Mehta Sukrit Anand Sandeep Kumar

What is Happiness?
Happiness Websters definition
Happiness is a state of well being or contentment Good fortune A pleasurable or a satisfying experience

What is Happiness?

How to maximize Happiness?

Although Greek philosophers have

thought about the idea of maximizing

happiness centuries ago, measurement of happiness is a recent phenomenon

Socrates

Why do we need to measure Happiness?

Do Economic Indicators depict welfare?
Economic measures such as GDP, GNP and Per Capita Income determine how wealthy a

country is.
High GDP, GNP would mean a higher standard of living which implies access to better

infrastructure, healthcare and education.

Ignore social factors such as distribution of wealth in society, governance, individual safety

and well being.

For developing nations, improvement in Economic indicators results in improvement in

happiness
For developed countries the trend can be inversely true

Key questions to ask 1. 2. Does GDP mean anything for the common man? Is there a measure which will capture what really affects the life of a common man

Some of the approaches that are used to measuring Happiness

Developed by the New Economics Foundation in July 2006 First published in 2010, and ranks 151 countries as of 2012

Happy Planet Index (HPI)

HPI ~ (Experienced Well Being X Life Expectancy/ Ecological Footprint) where data is sourced from Gallup World Poll, UNDP Human Development Report Costa Rica, Vietnam and Columbia top the HPI rankings in 2012, Botswana, Bahrain, Qatar and Chad are at the bottom. Launched as a recommendation by the Stiglitz-Sen-Fitoussi Report Aims to measure parameters of well being across nations

OECD Better Life Index

Includes 11 dimensions ranging from Income, Job Satisfaction, Education, Health and Environment As of December 2012, the Better Life Index has attracted over 1.8 million viewers from 184 countries

Originated in 1972 in Bhutan, however was formally adopted in 2008

Gross National Happiness (GNH)

Covers 9 dimensions which range from utilization of time, environment diversity and psychological well being Difficult to apply this index to a country with a large population

Economic Indicators vs. Happiness

Happiness Survey 2011 0 Indonesia India Mexico Brazil United States Saudi Arabia Britain China Germany Japan Italy Russia South Korea

10

20

30

40

50
4.7
3.7 15.1 11.8 48.1 24.1 36.0 8.4

60

Happy %

37.9
GDP per person at PPP, $000 30.2 16.7 31.8

Countries such as Russia and Japan have more than 5x the Per Capita GDP as compared to India

and Indonesia, however the level of happiness reported is almost half.

Growth in GDP tends to have a negating effect after a particular threshold `for developed countries Several factors affect the welfare of society despite economic progress, such as loss of local jobs,

outsourcing, increase in crime rate, inequality etc.

Countries are shifting focus from Purely economic metrics to composite welfare measures that include

Human Happiness and Development

A case in point Bhutan and the GNH index

Index to measure Happiness Gross National Happiness Factors contributing to high GNH Strong Community Feeling

Development with Values

Term coined by His Majesty the Fourth King

Cultural Heritage Community Sharing

of Bhutan, Jigme Singye Wangchuck in 1970

Holistic approach towards National

Healthy Family Relationships

development
Gives equal importance to non-economic

Promote Joint families

aspects of wellbeing Objectives Balance Economic Development = Spiritual well being Religious Aspects

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Traditions

Four pillars of GNH and their effects

Pillars of Gross National Happiness

Gross National Happiness

Establishment of good governance

Preservation and promotion of Cultural Values

Promotion of equitable and sustainable socio-economic development

Conservation of the natural environment

Gross National Happiness is more Important than Gross National Product Good Governance Cultural promotion Economic Development

Environmental Preservation
Increase forest cover Reduce pollution

Positive value for taxes

Happy citizens

Higher economic wealth

Measurement of GNH: 9 domains and 33 indicators

9

Time Use
Work Sleep

Education
Literacy Knowledge index Educational Level Value

Cultural Diversity
Speak native Language Cultural Participation Artistic Skills Etiquette
3

Health
Performance Index Rights Service Index Political Participation

Good Governance
Performance Index

Rights
Service Index Political Participation
4

Living Standards
Assets Indicator Housing Indicator Income

Community Vitality
Donations Community relationship Family Safety

GNH
5

Psychological Wellbeing
Satisfaction Positive emotions Negative emotions Spirituality
2

Ecological Diversity
Pollution Index Responsibility to

environment Wildlife Public Transport access

Methodology to measure GNH

Methodology
Alkire & Foster methodology
Choose indicators Apply sufficient thresholds Apply weights of each indicator Apply the Happiness threshold

Sufficiency thresholds Measures how much a person needs to enjoy sufficiency Each of the 33 indicators has a sufficiency threshold Weighting 9 domains have equal weights Weight allocated to each indicator Happiness thresholds Person who enjoys sufficiency in 6 or more domains is considered happy

Identify two groups:

Happy people Not yet happy people

GNH Index formula

GNH 1 (Headcount ratio * Breadth) Bhutan 2010 Real GNH Index 0.743

(Headcount ratio) Hn = Percent of not-yet-happy people (Breadth) An = Percent of domains where not-yet happy people lack sufficiency

So GNH Index changes when percent of happy people increase or not-yet-happy people have sufficiency in more domains

Although the idea of measuring happiness sounds good, some issues exist

Benefits
Gives a holistic picture of human well-being
Policies focus on increasing happiness

Criticisms
Reliability of responses
Similar results under similar conditions?

Sensitivity to questions in the survey

Ordering of questions Temporal effects moment by moment vs. long-term

Doesnt ignore effects of income inequality, social isolation, living standards, etc. Internalization of externalities Balance between economic growth and social growth
Development with values

Comparability of data
Location effects Cultural effects

Removes the need for having multiple social indicators such as HDI, MPI, etc.

Comparison among GNH, UN MDGs, & Traditional Development

GNH
Seeks to maximize
Individual and national Happiness

UN Millennium Development Goals

Social welfare

Traditional Development
Strong economies (as measured by gross national product and gross domestic product) Material, through international economic Cooperation

Needs to be met

Material, spiritual, and Emotional

Peace and security, human rights, and sustainable development, primarily through provision of education, health, and equality Society, global North South Relations Elimination of poverty, universal primary education, improvement of health indicators

Seeks to transform Definition of success

Individual, within society High level of happiness Nationwide

Economies Strong, stable economies, leading to high levels of material well-being

Implementation of GNH philosophy through policy making

Ensures that all planning, policy making, and implementation is in line with the GNH framework of Developing a dynamic economy as the foundation for a vibrant democracy Harmonious Living in harmony with tradition and nature Effective and good governance Our people: investing in the nations greatest asset.

Policy #2

Policy #1

Policy #3

Gross National Happiness Commission

Policies in line with the GNH philosophy Policy screening is done by using a GNH Policy and Project Screening Tool If it does not meet the requirements of each of the dimensions in GNH, the policy does not get passed. The Commission makes notes of the low scores along various variables and sends it back to the respective agency for a rework Some of the policies approved in the recent past include (but not limited to)
Renewable Natural Resource Research Policy, 2012 Cottage, small, and medium industry Policy, 2012 Tertiary Education Policy of the Kingdom of Bhutan, 2010 National Human Resource Development Policy of the Kingdom of Bhutan, 2010

Happiness in India Do we measure it and do we need it?

Gallup study
Indian government does not measure happiness as does that of Bhutans There is minimal data available to understand the happiness of Indians The only data we can refer to is the World Poll by Gallup

Life evaluation (1-10) Quality of life

7.35 5.2 5.06 7.14

Feelings balance (0-1) Emotional state

0.62 0.46 0.68 0.59

India

USA

China

Brazil

India

USA

China

Brazil

Findings of the study

Indians appear to experience mild satisfaction Indians are generally happier than their GDP per capita might suggest. However, Indians showed a

larger proportion of negative emotions compared to USA, China, and Brazil

Life evaluation and Feelings balance was much better in samples from Urban areas vis--vis Rural

areas maybe due to access to jobs, education, better goods and services, etc.
Social capital measures, such as Donated money, volunteered time, etc. were comparable in both

Urban and Rural

Applicability of GNH In India

In our opinion, it is a challenge to implement GNH as a welfare measure in India
The parameters for GNH differ from nation to nation and need to be redefined, so we cannot use

the same parameters in Bhutan

The heterogeneity of the cultures in India presents an added layer of challenge in objectifying

Happiness for an entire nation

Difficult to implement GNH over a large population of 1 billion people. Aggregation of data will yield

results that do not make much sense for an entire nation

India is at a stage where Economic indicators need to be supplemented with welfare indicators to

enable better policy making

Rather than a GNH for an entire nation, State level welfare measures would bode well. E.g. Assam

is one of the first states that is headed in this direction.

Thank You Open for Q&A