ECONOMIA E FELICITÀ.LA TEORIA AUSTRIACA DEI BENI RELAZIONALI DA MENGER A ROBBINS (Economics and Happiness. The Austrian Theory of Relational Goods from Menger to Robbins)
The “paradox of happiness in economics” has aroused a growing interest among scholars all over the world. In affluent societies, despite an increase in their income, many people do not declare themselves happier. One explanation is that economic growth can destroy some “relational goods” affecting happiness: family life, friendship, love, civil participation. Such an explanation is based on a historical interpretation: marginalism, denying the economic nature of the relational goods, would have overshadowed the issue of happiness in economics. In this paper I intend to reconstruct the story of an attempt – neglected but remarkable – first made by Menger and Böhm-Bawerk and later by Wicksteed and Robbins: an attempt to solve the problem of human relationships in economics.
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Paper provided by Universita' degli Studi di Firenze, Dipartimento di Scienze Economiche in its series Working Papers Series with number
wp2008_05.
Find related papers by JEL classification: B13 - Schools of Economic Thought and Methodology - - History of Economic Thought through 1925 - - - Neoclassical through 1925 (includes Austrian, Marshallian, Walrasian) D60 - Microeconomics - - Welfare Economics - - - General
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