Happiness Economics and Public Policy

The shift from traditional development to sustainable development and human development has necessitated the re-evaluation of welfare. Due to the inadequacy of national income measurements used as an indicator of economic prosperity in reflecting the welfare of societies, the studies on happiness economics and the effort to create new indicators by utilising happiness measurements are becoming increasingly widespread in the current century. Happiness economics is a field of study that provides empirically based evidence for the policy-making process by conducting interdisciplinary studies on the economic variables that determine happiness and the possible effects of economic policies. This study aims to reveal the process of including happiness economics findings and happiness measurements in public policy. The relationship between happiness and public policy is presented within the framework of theoretical debates in the field and the initiatives brought by those debates. Besides international examples, the current situation in Turkey has also been assessed in the context of development plans and life satisfaction surveys. In this way, the study contributes to the literature by showing how happiness economics and happiness measurement can be concretely incorporated into policy-making processes. The study concludes that there are national and international attempts to create new welfare indicators that include happiness. Furthermore, it has been observed that countries have implemented practices to promote happiness in public policies, and happiness has become one of the aims of public policy.