An economic model of subjective well-being: Integrating economic and psychological theories

Abstract

This paper compares theories of well-being/welfare in economics and psychology. It suggests that economists have an appropriate conceptual framework but the wrong variables for explaining well-being, whereas psychologists have a confusing framework but appropriate variables. A framework derived from "the new home economics" (Becker, 1965, 1973, 1977; Lancaster, 1966; Juster et al., 1985; Pollak and Wachter, 1975), and especially from the work of F. Thomas Juster and his colleagues, is proposed for the purpose of integrating economic and psychological variables into an account of human well-being. Essentially the framework calls for investigation of the impact of a household's economic and ps..