Could learning about happiness improve economics education

In a bold shift from traditional economics teaching, a group of researchers is calling on universities to bring happiness into the classroom.

Ori Heffetz, professor of economics at the Samuel Curtis Johnson Graduate School of Management, part of the Cornell SC Johnson College of Business, and his coauthors argue that economics students shouldn't focus only on GDP and unemployment as economic indicators but also on what makes people happy.

In the paper, "Teaching Happiness (economics) in Your Dismal-Science Courses," published January 24 in the Journal of Economic Education, the authors propose that asking students to reflect on how they feel about their own lives can make economics more engaging, relevant, and meaningful.

They offer practical ways to integrate happiness research into courses ranging from introductory macroeconomics to advanced electives. Heffetz's coauthors include Kristen B. Cooper, associate professor at Gordon College; John Ifcher, professor at Santa Clara University; Ekaterina Oparina, research economist at the London School of Economics, and Stephen Wu, Irma M. and Robert D. Morris Professor of Economics at Hamilton College.

"Economics has long focused on objective indicators like income, inflation, and GDP. But these don't always reflect how people actually feel," said Heffetz. "Students are naturally curious about what makes people happy, and these topics help them connect economics to their own lives. With the rise of surveys asking people about their happiness and life satisfaction, we now have tools to study well-being directly."

The authors draw on dozens of empirical studies, both their own and others'. In one study, the researchers initially assessed emotional well-being using yes-or-no questions with 1,000 U.S. residents, conducted by The Gallup Organization. The authors explain that happiness can be measured in several ways through general questions about life satisfaction and specific questions about feelings, for example, of joy, pride, sadness, or anxiety, along with the Cantril Ladder, a scale from 0 to 10 where people can rate their current and future life.

Read the full story on the Cornell SC Johnson College of Business website.

Sarah Magnus-Sharpe is director of public relations and communications at the SC Johnson College of Business.