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It first motivates why economics students would benefit from learning about SWB, then offers curriculum examples spanning macroeconomics, microeconomics, and upper-division electives. The paper also reflects on measurement concerns and the links between SWB research and utility maximization, emphasizing engagement and relevance to daily life.",{"@graph":69,"@context":122},[70,84,105],{"@type":71,"itemListElement":72},"BreadcrumbList",[73,77,79,82],{"item":74,"name":75,"@type":76,"position":8},"https://docshare.wps.com","Home","ListItem",{"item":78,"name":9,"@type":76,"position":14},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/",{"item":80,"name":40,"@type":76,"position":81},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/research-report/",3,{"item":83,"name":65,"@type":76,"position":19},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/teaching-happiness-economics-in-your-dismal-science-courses-discussion-paper-no-2090-april-2025/583151/",{"url":83,"name":65,"@type":85,"image":86,"author":91,"headline":65,"publisher":94,"fileFormat":97,"inLanguage":63,"description":67,"dateModified":98,"datePublished":99,"encodingFormat":97,"isAccessibleForFree":100,"interactionStatistic":101},"DigitalDocument",{"url":87,"@type":88,"width":89,"height":90},"https://docshare.wps.com/thumbnails/teaching-happiness-economics-in-your-dismal-science-courses-discussion-paper-no-2090-april-2025/583151.png","ImageObject",300,407,{"name":92,"@type":93},"\tJames","Person",{"url":74,"name":95,"@type":96},"DocShare","Organization","application/pdf","2026-11-10","2026-10-15",true,{"@type":102,"interactionType":103,"userInteractionCount":24},"InteractionCounter",{"@type":104},"ViewAction",{"@type":106,"mainEntity":107},"FAQPage",[108,114,118],{"name":109,"@type":110,"acceptedAnswer":111},"Why should undergraduate economics students study subjective well-being (SWB)?","Question",{"text":112,"@type":113},"The paper argues that learning about SWB can improve engagement and learning by addressing students’ fundamental question of what makes people happy, and by connecting SWB directly to utility maximization. It also helps students see economics’ relevance to daily life.","Answer",{"name":115,"@type":110,"acceptedAnswer":116},"What challenges are discussed regarding measuring happiness and SWB?",{"text":117,"@type":113},"The paper highlights that there are important issues involved in the measures used to study happiness and SWB, including concerns about how utility and subjective quality of life can be meaningfully assessed in practice.",{"name":119,"@type":110,"acceptedAnswer":120},"How does the paper suggest teaching happiness across different economics course levels?",{"text":121,"@type":113},"It provides examples for introducing the topic into macroeconomics, microeconomics, and upper-division electives, with each section beginning from basic concepts and then suggesting how to apply them in specific courses.","https://schema.org",{"og:url":83,"og:type":124,"og:title":65,"og:site_name":95,"og:description":67},"article",{"robots":126,"canonical":83},"index,follow",{"doc_id":128,"site_id":62},583151,1792316786,{"code":4,"msg":5,"data":131},{"doc_id":128,"user_id":132,"nickname":92,"user_avatar":133,"doc_module":4,"category_id":39,"category_name":40,"doc_title":65,"doc_description":67,"doc_content":134,"file_id":135,"file_url":136,"file_type":137,"file_size":138,"view_count":24,"is_deleted":4,"is_public":8,"is_downloadable":8,"audit_status":8,"page_count":139,"language":140,"language_code":63,"site_id":62,"html_lang":63,"table_of_contents":141,"faqs":142,"seo_title":143,"seo_description":67,"update_tm":144,"read_time":145,"preview_page_count":4},2336474466412,"https://ap-avatar.wpscdn.com/davatar_155a257f0dc6eb9ab79c44ca47cae57d","Discussion Paper  \nISSN 2042-2695  \nNo. 2090 April 2025  \nTeaching happiness (economics) in your dismal-science courses  \nKristen B. Cooper Ori Heffetz John Ifcher Ekaterina Oparina Stephen Wu  \nAbstract  \nThis paper discusses ideas for incorporating the study of happiness and other measures of selfreported or subjective well-being (SWB) into undergraduate economics courses. We begin by motivating why students of economics would benefit from learning about SWB, and then proceed to provide examples of ways to introduce this topic into different parts of the curriculum: macroeconomics, microeconomics, and upper division electives.  \nKey words: subjective wellbeing, self-reported wellbeing, economics of happiness, teaching economics  \nThis paper was produced as part of the Centre’s Wellbeing Programme. The Centre for Economic Performance is financed by the Economic and Social Research Council.  \nWe are extremely grateful to William Bosshardt for soliciting the idea for this paper, organizing the 2024 American Economic Association session from which this is based, assembling our team of authors, and generously helping bring this project to fruition. Cooper and Heffetz gratefully acknowledge support from NIH/NIA grant R01-AG065364 to the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.  \nKristen B. Cooper, Gordon College and UCLA. Ori Heffetz, Cornell University and Hebrew University of Jerusalem. John Ifcher, Santa Clare University. Ekaterina Oparina, Centre for Economic Performance at London School of Economics. Stephen Wu, Hamilton College.  \nPublished by  \nCentre for Economic Performance  \nLondon School of Economic and Political Science Houghton Street, London WC2A 2AE  \nAll rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means without the prior permission in writing of the publisher nor be issued to the public or circulated in any form other than that in which it is published.  \nRequests for permission to reproduce any article or part of the Working Paper should be sent to the editor at the above address.  \n􀂔 K.B. Cooper, O. Heffetz, J. Ifcher, E. Oparina and S. Wu, submitted 2025.  \nOne of the bedrock assumptions of economics is that individuals seek to maximize their utility. In spite of this, economists have traditionally ignored what people say about the subjective quality of their lives and focused on more objective measures of progress such as income, unemployment rates, and measures of output. Studying and understanding utility is important, but for two major impediments: many economists have long believed that it is impossible to directly measure utility in any meaningful way; and until more recently, questions about self-reported or subjective well-being (SWB) have not been asked in most individual and household surveys. With the proliferation of surveys that ask people about happiness and other subjective measures of well-being1, the economics of happiness has developed into a subfield of economics with a burgeoning literature and a rapidly growing number of researchers.2 Given this recent development in happiness research, this paper discusses why and how we might incorporate happiness into the economics curriculum, particularly at the undergraduate level.  \nThere are a number of potential benefits to introducing students to happiness research in their early exposure to economics. Learning and engagement may increase by asking students to respond to one of life’s most fundamental questions: “what makes people happy?” Students will have their own opinions as to what determines happiness and will have opportunities to contribute to class discussions. Research in pedagogy shows that creating a sense of belonging and validating students’ contributions can greatly enhance learning outcomes (Delahunty et al. 2014; Masika and Jones 2016) . SWB research is also directly relevant to the study of economics, as it ties in with the basic principle of utility maxim","cbCaiqkRA7UbybC6","https://ap.wps.com/l/cbCaiqkRA7UbybC6","pdf",704991,38,"English","# Abstract\n# Motivation and benefits of incorporating happiness research\n# Measurement of happiness and subjective well-being\n# Integrating happiness into macroeconomics and microeconomics\n# Incorporating happiness into upper-division electives\n# Key literature results and classroom implementation","[{\"question\":\"Why should undergraduate economics students study subjective well-being (SWB)?\",\"answer\":\"The paper argues that learning about SWB can improve engagement and learning by addressing students’ fundamental question of what makes people happy, and by connecting SWB directly to utility maximization. It also helps students see economics’ relevance to daily life.\"},{\"question\":\"What challenges are discussed regarding measuring happiness and SWB?\",\"answer\":\"The paper highlights that there are important issues involved in the measures used to study happiness and SWB, including concerns about how utility and subjective quality of life can be meaningfully assessed in practice.\"},{\"question\":\"How does the paper suggest teaching happiness across different economics course levels?\",\"answer\":\"It provides examples for introducing the topic into macroeconomics, microeconomics, and upper-division electives, with each section beginning from basic concepts and then suggesting how to apply them in specific courses.\"}]","Teaching happiness (economics) in your dismal-science courses - Discussion Paper - No. 2090 - April 2025 | PDF",1792046027,96]