Unemployment and happiness1. IntroductionHappiness is probably like the old topic. Most experts such as psychologists, philosophers and even economists are concerned with the definition of what happiness is. However, there is no consensus view on what happiness is. Happiness should depend on different people. Some people believe that happiness is the good goal of life. But other people don't think that happiness is the good goal of life because there are other factors that can influence happiness such as confidence, job satisfaction, family life satisfaction, marriage, etc. Therefore, because happiness is a very elusive concept, we cannot directly judge people's happiness or unhappiness. Using economics to judge happiness might be the simplest way although there are some imperfections, so in this essay we will follow the relationship between unemployment and happiness.2. Income and HappinessMost economists believe that unemployment is an unfortunate event for happiness; has a negative influence on happiness. According to common sense, it should be linked to income because people always think that less income will decrease happiness. But is it true? Is more income better? According to Easterlin Paradox, “high income is related to happiness, but an increase in long-term income is not related to an increase in happiness”(1). “Richard Easterlin (1974) is the first economist to seriously study data on happiness, concluding that money does not buy happiness (2). There are two graphs that can clearly show, from 1945 to 1990, real GDP per capita (in 1996 US dollars) had a huge increase of more than 5 times. For average happiness, the trend should be similar to that of income, but this was not the case. From 1...... half of the sheet......02. 95-110. Print.4. Frey, Bruno S. and Alois Stuzer. Happiness and the economics of "work": How economics and institutions affect human well-being. Princeton,NJ: Princeton UP, 2002. 95-110. Print.5. Frey, Bruno S. and Alois Stuzer. “Income” happiness and the economy: How the economy and institutions affect human well-being. Princeton,NJ: Princeton UP, 2002. 73-94. Print.6. Clark, Andrew E. and Andrew J. Oswald. “Unhappiness and unemployment”. The Economic Journal 104.424(1994): 648-95. Print.7. Clark, Andrew E. and Andrew J. Oswald. “Unhappiness and unemployment”. The Economic Journal 104.424(1994): 648-95. Print.8. Clark, Andrew E. and Andrew J. Oswald. “Unhappiness and unemployment”. The Economic Journal 104.424(1994): 648-95. Press.