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Capability and Happiness: A Suggested Integration From a Dynamic Perspective

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Abstract

In the study of human welfare and progress, two prominent approaches stand out, but they appear to have opposite perspectives and even opposite weaknesses. The capability approach (CA), founded by A. Sen, focuses on the objective factors that contribute to human welfare. The happiness approach (HA), initiated by R. Easterlin, focuses on subjective well-being as the outcome of living conditions. The main weaknesses regard ‘aggregation’ for the CA but not for the HA, and ‘adaptation’ for the CA but not for the HA. The paper suggests to integrate the two approaches by adopting the perspective of endogenous dynamics which was put forward by Scitovsky (who was a forerunner of the HA) but which remained undeveloped. This perspective helps to avoid the just mentioned and other weaknesses; it widens the research field to include both poor and rich countries and communities; and it contributes to link the objective with the subjective evaluations of individual welfare. Empirical evidence drawn from the recent interdisciplinary literature provides some support for the analyses.

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Notes

  1. Sen also rejected Nussbaum’s (2003) proposal of a defined list of ten capabilities, because he claimed that any list should be adapted to the context.

  2. Typical questions, taken from the World Values Survey, are: “All considered you would say that you are: 1. very happy; 2. pretty happy; 3. not too happy; 4. not at all happy?”; “All things considered, how satisfied are you with your life as a whole these days?”. The answer to this second question can be given on a scale from 1 to 10.

  3. For a detailed discussion of Scitovsky’s contributions, see Pugno (2014), Earl (1992).

  4. Learning is sufficient if its positive effect is greater than the possible negative effect of the natural decay of the personal conversions factor due to people’s aging.

  5. More rigorously, the personal conversion factors are due to the cumulated experience of functionings net of decay over some minimum initial levels.

  6. Scitovsky (1986: 189,198) cited the notable cases of the abilities of Keynes’ investors and Schumpeter’s entrepreneurs.

  7. Scitovsky usually treated the pursuit of novelty as a purposeful search for new knowledge, but he also recognised that one variety of novelty is pursued for pure excitement, such as that typically given by uncertainty in games. In this case, ‘chance novelty’ may be the proper label, and it can be associated with our group I because it is usually sought in order to escape from boredom, which is a kind of discomfort (Scitovsky 1996, 2000).

  8. See also the survey by Veenhoven (2010) on other specific empirical studies.

  9. In a similar vein, Fredrickson (2001) puts forward the theory claiming that experiences of positive emotions help people to build their enduring personal resources, from intellectual to social.

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Acknowledgments

This paper is an elaboration of my presentation at the Conference on “Public Happiness” (June 4–5 2013, Rome, Italy), where I benefited from comments from, and discussions with, several participants, in particular Neil De Marchi, Mozaffar Qizilbash, Luigino Bruni, Carol Ryff and Chad Baum. I wish to thank also the two anonymous referees for comments and suggestions. The financial support for this research provided by MIUR is gratefully acknowledged.

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  1. Department of Economics and Law and CreaM, University of Cassino, Campus Folcara, 03043, Cassino, Italy

    Maurizio Pugno

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Pugno, M. Capability and Happiness: A Suggested Integration From a Dynamic Perspective. J Happiness Stud 16, 1383–1399 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10902-014-9559-7

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