Happiness and Public Policy

PETER J. BOETTKE Professor, Economics Department, George Mason University, USA BRIAN BRIDGES Professor, Department of Politics and Sociology and Director, Center for Asian Pacific Studies, Lingnan University, Hong Kong S.L. CHOW Professor of Psychology, University of Regina, Canada CHRISTOPHER J. COYNE Assistant Professor of Economics, Hampden-Sydney College, Austria HONG-XIA FAN PhD Student, Institute of Labor and Industrial Relations, University of Illinois, USA JOHNATHAN GRUBER Professor of Economics, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, USA LIN LIN PhD Candidate, Research Center for the Social and Economic Behaviors, Chinese Academy of Sciences, China JIA-FANG LU Assistant Teaching Fellow, Department of Politics and Sociology, Lingnan University, Hong Kong GORDON MATHEWS Associate Professor of Anthropology, Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong SENDHIL MULLAINATHAN Professor of Economics, Harvard University, USA DAVID R. PHILLIPS Chair Professor of Social Policy, Department of Politics and Sociology, Lingnan University, Hong Kong KAN SHI Director, Research Center for the Social and Economic Behaviors and Vice President, Chinese Association of Psychology, China OI-LING SIU Professor, Lingnan University, Hong Kong WEI SHI Masters Candidate, Research Center for the Social and Economic Behaviors, Chinese Academy of Sciences, China ULRICH SCHIMMACK Associate Professor, University of Toronto, Canada VIJAY KUMAR SHROTYRIA Reader, Department of Commerce, North Eastern Hill University, India RUUT VEENHOVEN Professor of Social Conditions for Human Happiness, Erasmus University of Rotterdam, The Netherlands XIAO-LU WANG PhD Candidate, Institute of Psychology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, China RUI ZHENG Assistant Professor, Social and Economic Behaviors, Chinese Academy of Sciences, China

Happiness is a private matter and individual pursuit; however, public policy does have an important role and can contribute much through various enabling means. This volume discusses the determinants of happiness and presents case studies of how public policy can help promote happiness.Happiness is a private matter and individual pursuit; however, public policy does have an important role and can contribute much through various enabling means. This volume discusses the determinants of happiness and presents case studies of how public policy can help promote happiness.