A case for happiness, cardinalism, and interpersonal comparability
The economic journal, vol. 107, no. 445, 1997, pp. 1848–1858
Abstract
Happiness is more important than the more objective concepts of choice, preference and income. Cardinal notions of utility should be considered.Modern economists are strongly biased in favor of preference, ordinalism and against personal comparison. The opposite is argued. The proposed change in perspective has important conceptual and policy significance, as also evidenced in the papers by Frank (1997) and Oswald (1997) that are strongly endorsed.
