You can't buy happiness, but you can measure it, sort of: OECD

0 Comments | AFP, April, 2007

ROME (AFP) — Happiness is notoriously subjective, but advances in the study of life satisfaction are helping policy-makers to look beyond the single-minded goal of maximising national incomes, experts who took part in an OECD conference say.

"We know that income has a direct influence on happiness, but the equation is not simple," said economist Leonardo Becchetti of the University of Rome.

"If you're above average in the social group to which you belong, your perception of happiness rises, but not in the same proportion as your income," he told AFP on the sidelines of the conference here.

The two-day meeting, which ended Tuesday, was sponsored by the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development, the University of Rome "Tor Vergata", the Bank of...