Is it really true that money doesn’t buy happiness, as folk wisdom wants us to believe? If so, then why do governments, companies and millions of people act as though they are convinced of the opposite?
In this book, Peggy Schyns focuses on the questions if and how income and life satisfaction are related to each other: Does income make individuals more satisfied with life? And if so, how exactly are income and life satisfaction connected? Are wealthier countries on average happier countries, or is it rather a matter of culture? Does it matter where we live, say China or Norway, for how strong our satisfaction with life depends on our income? And, at a more basic level: Is it possible to measure life satisfaction at all, and if so, can we meaningfully compare it between different countries?
These and other questions are investigated in the study, which uses large-scale survey data from more than 40 countries, and panel studies from Germany and the Russian Federation, examples of two rather extreme opposites in terms of wealth and stability.
Peggy Schyns dared to address the mind-boggling question of whether money buys happiness in her study at the Erasmus University Rotterdam in the Netherlands. Currently she focuses on the intriguing phenomenon of political cynicism at Leiden University.
