Do Sen's capabilities determine happiness? Evidence from a unique survey data. (2015)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Hasan, Hamid; Khan, Hayat
• Is Part Of: International journal of happiness and development. Volume 2:Number 2(2015)
• Page Start: 160
• Page End: 181
• Publication Date: 2015
• Subjects: happiness -- Sen&amp -- #39 -- s capabilities -- subjective well-being -- SWB -- human development index -- HDI -- income -- education -- sense of achievement -- freedom to achieve -- ability to achieve; Happiness -- Economic aspects -- Periodicals; Happiness -- Periodicals; Well-being -- Periodicals; Quality of life -- Periodicals; 302.5
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 2049-2790

Abstract

We use a unique dataset in the Pakistan Socio-Economic Survey (PSES) to measure sense-of-achievement, sense-of-freedom-to-achieve, and sense-of-ability-to-achieve which quantifies Sen's functioning, freedom and conversion efficiency respectively for an overall functioning of 'being achieved'. We show that the PSES capability indicators of subjective well-being (SWB) provide distinctive information while together with the happiness indicator they capture additional insights about SWB which is lacking in human development index (HDI) as shown by a comparison of districts ranking on the basis of HDI and SWB indices. Moreover, we find that the capabilities of 'being achieved' are the most important and stable determinants of happiness vis-à-vis income and education.