Richard Easterlin died in December at the age of 98. He’s been called “the father of happiness economics”, and it’s hard to disagree. Fifty years ago, after struggling to find an economics journal with any interest in the topic, Easterlin published an article titled “Does Economic Growth Improve the Human Lot?” It planted the seeds of what became known as the Easterlin paradox. Within any given society, richer people are substantially more likely to say they’re happy. The paradox says that despite this fact, richer countries are no happier than poor ones. Nor do countries become happier on average as they become richer.
理查德?伊斯特林(Richard Easterlin)于12月去世，享年98歲。他被稱為“幸福經濟學之父”，這一稱號當之無愧。五十年前，在很難找到對該主題感興趣的經濟學期刊后，伊斯特林發表了一篇題為《經濟增長是否改善人類生活？》的文章。這篇文章播下了后來被稱為伊斯特林悖論的種子。在任何特定社會中，富裕的人更有可能表示他們感到幸福。悖論指出，盡管如此，富裕國家并不比貧窮國家更幸福。國家即使變得更富裕，平均幸福感也沒有提高。