Nobel Laureate Economist’s Study: Happiness Can Be Purchased

Is it possible to buy happiness with money? For generations, economists and social scientists have been attempting to answer this question.

However, a new study has provided a new answer: happiness rises with increased income and earnings.

It is based on research conducted by Nobel Laureate economists Daniel Kahneman and Matthew Killingsworth of Princeton University and the University of Pennsylvania, who crunched numbers to reach this conclusion, according to the outlet. It contradicts a 2010 study that found money could only increase happiness to a point – roughly $75,000 in annual earnings.

The prior study, whose two authors included Kahneman, was so well-known that its creator, the founder of a credit card company, reduced his own income in order to raise the minimum pay for his employees to $70,000.

The two researchers polled 33,391 Americans between the ages of 18 and 65. These people made at least $10,000 a year as a family.

The publication claims that the researchers used a smartphone app to record the participants’ responses to questions about their feelings at random intervals. From ‘extremely bad’ to ‘very good’, the responses were given.

The study came to two major conclusions: Happiness does improve with higher earnings, up to $500,000 per year, and there is a subset of people for whom higher earnings are insignificant.

According to the study, this ‘unhappy group’ accounted for approximately 15% of the population.

Money isn’t everything, though; it’s “just one of the many determinants of happiness,” Mr. Killingsowrth warned in a statement. “Money is not the secret to happiness,” he added, “but it can probably help a little.”

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