Journal of Economic Literature
ISSN 0022-0515 (Print) | ISSN 2328-8175 (Online)
Unhappiness and Pain in Modern America: A Review Essay, and Further Evidence, on Carol Graham's Happiness for All?
Journal of Economic Literature
vol. 57,
no. 2, June 2019
(pp. 385–402)
(Complimentary)
Abstract
In Happiness for All? Unequal Hopes and Lives in the Pursuit of the American Dream, Carol Graham raises disquieting ideas about today's United States. The challenge she puts forward is an important one. Here we review the intellectual case and offer additional evidence. We conclude broadly on the author's side. Strikingly, Americans appear to be in greater pain than citizens of other countries, and most subgroups of citizens have downwardly trended happiness levels. There is, however, one bright side to an otherwise dark story. The happiness of black Americans has risen strongly since the 1970s. It is now almost equal to that of white Americans.Citation
Blanchflower, David G., and Andrew J. Oswald. 2019. "Unhappiness and Pain in Modern America: A Review Essay, and Further Evidence, on Carol Graham's Happiness for All?" Journal of Economic Literature, 57 (2): 385–402. DOI: 10.1257/jel.20171492Additional Materials
JEL Classification
- D31 Personal Income, Wealth, and Their Distributions
- I12 Health Behavior
- I31 General Welfare; Well-Being
- J15 Economics of Minorities, Races, Indigenous Peoples, and Immigrants; Non-labor Discrimination
- Z13 Economic Sociology; Economic Anthropology; Language; Social and Economic Stratification