The Economics Book

IN CONTEXT

FOCUS

Society and the economy

KEY THINKER

Richard Easterlin (1926–)

BEFORE

1861 John Stuart Mill argues that a moral act is one that maximizes overall happiness.

1932 Simon Kuznets publishes the first national income accounts for the US based purely on conventional economic variables.

AFTER

1997 British economist Andrew Oswald argues that joblessness is the main reason for unhappiness.

2005 British economist Richard Layard publishes Happiness: Lessons from a New Science, revisiting the debate about the link between happiness and income.

The first modern national accounts for a country were created for the US in the 1930s by Russian-American economist ...