Economic Growth and Subjective Well-Being (PDF)

Seminar paper from the year 2021 in the subject Economy - Health Economics, grade: 1,0, Carl von Ossietzky University of Oldenburg (Faculty: Law and Economics), language: English, abstract: This paper will examine the discourse on whether growth leads to greater life satisfaction. First, the historical data on growth and its significance are examined, and then two opposing positions on the question of whether growth brings more happiness are elaborated and analysed. In the end, we will assess to what extent we should and can orient ourselves to these findings in the future.

Growth - Navigator to happiness?

It should always go in one direction: higher, faster, further. We owe much of the technological progress of our time to this mantra. While 36% of Germans owned a smartphone in 2012, the proportion rose to over 81% in 2019. But does it always have to be more money, does the life satisfaction of a society increase when its economy grows?

This debate is certainly not new; almost every pupil should write a paper in social science class on whether the gross domestic product could be a suit-able indicator of prosperity. In recent years, the call for a new indicator of prosperity has become louder and louder. For example, the Prime Minister of New Zealand, Jacinda Ardern, announced last year that in the future she would pay more attention to the standard of living of her citizens than to economic strength alone. She justified the paradigm shift by saying that despite solid growth of 3% and an unemployment rate of 3.9%, New Zealand had a high rate of homelessness and one of the highest suicide rates. Also, 27% of children lived in poverty. Ardern is gradually changing its budget to follow the OECD's "Better Life" recommendations. Priority will now be given to government spending that strengthens mental health, pro-motes digital development and a sustainable economy, and reduces child poverty and inequalities. "This budget is a game-changing event" , says Richard Layard, Professor at the London School of Economics who is an expert on life satisfaction across populations.

The globally prevailing development model in the form of continuous economic growth is also sceptically questioned by some German economists. The president of the German Institute for Economic Research (DIW), Prof. Marcel Fratzscher, also advocates the pursuit of so-called "qualitative growth". The state should try to reduce inequality and promote climate protection through targeted investments.