Lecture

Economic Growth and Life Satisfaction

Graph Chat

Chat with Graph Search

Ask any question about EPFL courses, lectures, exercises, research, news, etc. or try the example questions below.

DISCLAIMER: The Graph Chatbot is not programmed to provide explicit or categorical answers to your questions. Rather, it transforms your questions into API requests that are distributed across the various IT services officially administered by EPFL. Its purpose is solely to collect and recommend relevant references to content that you can explore to help you answer your questions.

In course

HUM-471: Economic growth and sustainability I

This course examines growth from various angles: economic growth, growth in the use of resources, need for growth, limits to growth, sustainable growth, population growth. Although grounded in economics, it takes up elements from many other disciplines. ...

Description

This lecture explores the relationship between GDP, life satisfaction, and household disposable income, analyzing data from various countries. It discusses the Easterlin Paradox, levels of income where life satisfaction stops rising, and the impact of GDP on life expectancy and child mortality.

Instructor

Philippe Thalmann

Philippe Thalmann was born in Lausanne in 1963. He graduated in Economics from the University of Lausanne in 1984, where he earned a postgraduate diploma in Economics in 1986. Mr. Thalmann entered the doctoral program in Economics of Harvard University (Cambridge, U.S.A.) in 1986, which he completed with a Ph.D. in 1990. His dissertation is entitled: "Essays in the Economics of Government Revenues and Spending". Returning to Switzerland, he was hired as an assistant professor first at the University of Geneva (teachings in Public Economics), then at the University of Lausanne (teachings in Econometrics and Introductory Economics). Since 1994, Mr. Thalmann is associate professor of Economics as the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology at Lausanne.

Official source

Related concepts (21)

Income

Income is the consumption and saving opportunity gained by an entity within a specified timeframe, which is generally expressed in monetary terms. Income is difficult to define conceptually and the definition may be different across fields. For example, a person's income in an economic sense may be different from their income as defined by law. An extremely important definition of income is Haig–Simons income, which defines income as Consumption + Change in net worth and is widely used in economics.

Income distribution

In economics, income distribution covers how a country's total GDP is distributed amongst its population. Economic theory and economic policy have long seen income and its distribution as a central concern. Unequal distribution of income causes economic inequality which is a concern in almost all countries around the world. Classical economists such as Adam Smith (1723–1790), Thomas Malthus (1766–1834), and David Ricardo (1772–1823) concentrated their attention on factor income-distribution, that is, the distribution of income between the primary factors of production (land, labour and capital).

Household income in the United States

Household income is an economic standard that can be applied to one household, or aggregated across a large group such as a county, city, or the whole country. It is commonly used by the United States government and private institutions to describe a household's economic status or to track economic trends in the US. A key measure of household income is the median income, at which half of households have income above that level and half below. The U.S.

Happiness economics

The economics of happiness or happiness economics is the theoretical, qualitative and quantitative study of happiness and quality of life, including positive and negative affects, well-being, life satisfaction and related concepts – typically tying economics more closely than usual with other social sciences, like sociology and psychology, as well as physical health. It typically treats subjective happiness-related measures, as well as more objective quality of life indices, rather than wealth, income or profit, as something to be maximized.

Economic growth

Economic growth can be defined as the increase or improvement in the inflation-adjusted market value of the goods and services produced by an economy in a financial year. Statisticians conventionally measure such growth as the percent rate of increase in the real and nominal gross domestic product (GDP). Growth is usually calculated in real terms – i.e., inflation-adjusted terms – to eliminate the distorting effect of inflation on the prices of goods produced. Measurement of economic growth uses national income accounting.

Related lectures (64)

Economic Growth and Happiness

Explores the link between economic growth and happiness, showing that life satisfaction does not always increase with higher income levels.

How to Prepare for Exam

Provides tips for the exam and revisits key concepts on economic growth and happiness.

Economic Growth and Happiness

Explores the complex relationship between economic growth and happiness, questioning the necessity of continuous growth in high-income countries.

Need for Economic Growth in Low-Income Countries

Explores the need for economic growth in low-income countries, focusing on poverty reduction, inequality, and environmental impact.

Need for Economic Growth: GDP and Happiness