Condicionantes da felicidade como objeto de análise econômica: um estudo das relações ao desenvolvimento

Abstract

Measuring socioeconomic development has been a practice that seeks to assess the conditions of evolution in the quality of life in the regions, verifying how other dimensions together with wealth can represent an index of progress that reflects the picture of social well-being. However, the dimensions of the commonly used indices are unsatisfactory in view of the degree of abstraction of individual satisfaction, enabling the consideration of relevant subjective pillars for a less biased measure of reality. In this perspective, the work aims to examine some of the conditions of subjective well-being that configure happiness indexes, supplying the analytical deficiency of the HDI and providing instruments for the formulation of more effective public policies. To this end, bibliographic research was carried out comparing concepts of happiness to the socioeconomic elements that constitute development, in order to present how subjective dimensions affect the quality of life and are necessary in the reading and planning of the process of social transformation. The expected result with this approach is found in the elucidation that a development index, unable to consider the maximum possible dimensions that affect life in society, both objective and subjective, obtains biased data about the regional reality.