Money really cant buy happiness!

A new collaborative paper by Richard Easterlin namesake of the 8220;Easterlin Paradox8221; and founder of the field of happiness studies offers the broadest range of evidence to date demonstrating that a higher rate of economic growth does not result in a greater increase of happiness.

Across a worldwide sample of 37 countries,rich and poor,ex-Communist and capitalist,Easterlin and his co-authors shows strikingly consistent results: over the long term,a sense of well-being within a country does not go up with income.

In contrast to shorter-term studies that have shown a correlation between income growth and happiness,this paper examined the happiness and income relationship in each country for an average of 22 years and at least ten years.

8220;This article rebuts recent claims that there is a positive long-term relationship between happiness and income,when in fact,the relationship is nil,8221; explained Easterlin,USC University Professor and professor of economics in the USC College of Letters,Arts amp; Sciences.

Easterlin and a team of USC researchers spent five years reassessing the Easterlin Paradox,a key economic concept introduced by Easterlin in the seminal 1974 paper,8221;Does Economic Growth Improve the Human Lot? Some Empirical Evidence.8221;

8220;Simply stated,the happiness-income paradox is this: at a point in time both among and within countries,happiness and income are positively correlated. But,over time,happiness does not increase when a country8217;s income increases,8221; explained Easterlin,whose influence has created an entire subfield of economic inquiry.

The study has been published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.