MONEY can’t buy me love – but can we put a cash value on the loss of a loved one? According to Nick Powdthavee’s breezy summary of recent research at the border between economics and psychology, we can.
Exploring the nature of well-being, the research Powdthavee reports probes fundamental aspects of the human condition with endearingly crude instruments. Compiling self-reported estimates of happiness after winning the lottery lacks the psychological nuances of, say, a Tolstoy novel.
For a book which promises startling new findings, it left me singularly unstartled. The fact that having children produces no lasting increase in happiness, for…
