Résumés
Résumé
Cet article présente une synthèse des recherches sur le bonheur relativement aux politiques publiques et démontre que le bonheur autorapporté peut être utilisé pour évaluer ces politiques. Le bien-être déclaré traduit plutôt bien les conditions sociales et économiques objectives et permet de quantifier la souffrance des gens. Des résultats démontrent que certaines politiques sociales (des prestations d’assurance-chômage généreuses, l’égalité des revenus ou l’imposition fiscale progressive du revenu, par exemple) sont associées positivement au bien-être autorapporté, tandis que d’autres (comme un pourcentage élevé du PIB en dépenses gouvernementales) ne le sont pas. De la même manière que l’évaluation régulière des activités économiques jauge l’efficacité de certaines politiques et du bien-être économique des individus, l’évaluation périodique du bien-être autorapporté des citoyens permet de jauger l’efficacité de politiques spécifiques ainsi que le bien-être psychologique des individus et de la société en général.
Mots-clés :
- Bonheur,
- bien-être,
- bien-être subjectif,
- politiques publiques,
- bien-être sociétal
Abstract
This article summarizes policy-relevant happiness research and demonstrates that self-reported happiness could be used to evaluate public policies. Self-reported well-being tracks objective societal and economic conditions fairly well and helps quantify people’s suffering. Evidence also demonstrates that some liberal policies, such as generous unemployment benefits, progressive taxation, and income equality are positively associated with citizens’ self-reported well-being, whereas others (e.g. larger government spending per Gross Domestic Product) are not. Just as the regular recording of economic activities helps gauge the effectiveness of specific policies and the general economic well-being of individuals and society at large, the regular recording of citizens’ self-reporting well-being gauge the effectiveness of specific policies as well as the psychological well-being of individuals and society at large.
Keywords:
- happiness,
- well-being,
- subjective well-being,
- policy goal,
- societal well-being
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