Well-being and Growth in Advanced Economies : The Need to Prioritise Human Development

"Economic growth is generally regarded by governments and most ordinary people as a panacea for all problems, including issues caused by the COVID pandemic. But this raises an important question: is further growth in advanced economies able to increase well-being once people's basic subsistence needs are met? Some advanced market economies, e.g. the United States, have exhibited a decline in well-being, both subjectively and objectively measured, over several decades despite seeing economic growth during the same period. This book provides an original and comprehensive explanation: economic growth, as driven by market forces, induces people, through both the demand- and supply-side channels, to pursue command over more material resources, and this weakens the self-generation of capabilities, putting well-being at risk of deterioration. The book argues, with the support of a variety of evidence, that the challenge can be overcome if governments' policies and people's choices pursue, as their ultimate goal, 'fundamental human development' on an evolutionary basis: the development of the capability of a typical person to conceive and share with others new purposes, to pursue them individually or collectively, and thus to contribute to building human culture. If such human development is prioritised, it makes people satisfied with their lives and resistant to adverse shocks, and it can even shape the pattern of economic growth. By contrast, if economic growth is prioritised, it tends to weaken and impoverish fundamental human development, and consequently people's well-being and social cohesion. With this volume, readers will find an answer to a problem that is both urgent and long-term, both individual and societal. The work makes a substantial contribution to the literature on wellbeing, the economics of happiness, human capital and growth, and the capability approach. Maurizio Pugno (M. Phil., Cambridge, UK) is Full Professor of Economics at the University of Cassino, Italy"-- Provided by publisher Cover Half Title Series Title Copyright Dedication Contents About the author Acknowledgments Introduction and summary Prologue 1 Economic growth and people’s well-being in advanced countries 1.1 Economic growth and unsuccessful growth policies in advanced countries 1.2 Does economic growth predict people’s well-being in the advanced countries? 1.3 The decline of well-being in the United States 1.4 Economic growth and the deterioration of social cohesion Notes References 2 Human development and well-being 2.1 In search of a human development that ensures well-being 2.2 Human development as an expansion of the fundamental human capability 2.3 The fundamental human capability in both human evolution and infancy 2.4 Human development as a self-generating process 2.5 The path from human development to well-being 2.6 Ill-beings from weak human development Notes References 3 Why growth in market economies can deteriorate human development and well-being 3.1 A new and comprehensive explanation 3.2 Adverse shocks on the labour market and on workers’ well-being 3.3 Education under market pressure 3.4 Parenting and children’s development under market pressure 3.5 Addiction as self-medication Notes References 4 Economic growth and human development: which priority in the post-pandemic era? 4.1 The COVID-19 pandemic: hindrance or opportunity for human development? 4.2 Prioritising human development: how to relax its constrains 4.3 Prioritising human development: how to directly promote it 4.4 Prioritising human development: how to defend it 4.5 How human development can change the pattern of economic growth Notes References Epilogue Index Most writers associated with the first generation of British Romanticism - Blake, Coleridge, Wordsworth, Southey, Thelwall, and others - wrote against the slave trade. This edition collects a corpus of work which reflects the issues and theories concerning slavery and the status of the slave.