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Gross national happiness

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  • Winton Bates

Abstract

This article considers the concept of gross national happinesss, as it has evolved in Bhutan, against the background of literature on the pursuit of happiness as a government objective and the problems associated with different approaches to measuring well-being. It concludes that since all measures of well-being are imperfect, including the measure of gross national happiness currently being applied in Bhutan, the best approach is to use a range of different measures, including conventional national accounting indicators. Copyright © 2009 The Author. Journal compilation © 2009 Crawford School of Economics and Government, The Australian National University and Blackwell Publishing Asia Pty Ltd..

Suggested Citation

  • Winton Bates, 2009. "Gross national happiness," Asian-Pacific Economic Literature, The Crawford School, The Australian National University, vol. 23(2), pages 1-16, November.
    • Handle: RePEc:bla:apacel:v:23:y:2009:i:2:p:1-16
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    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1111/j.1467-8411.2009.01235.x
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