TY  - JOUR
AU  - Benjamin,Daniel J.
AU  - Heffetz,Ori
AU  - Kimball,Miles S.
AU  - Rees-Jones,Alex
TI  - Do People Seek to Maximize Happiness? Evidence from New Surveys
JF  - National Bureau of Economic Research Working Paper Series
VL  - No. 16489
PY  - 2010
Y2  - October 2010
UR  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w16489
L1  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w16489.pdf
N1  - Author contact info:
Daniel J. Benjamin
Economics Department
Cornell University
480 Uris Hall
Ithaca, NY 14853
Tel: 607/255-2355
Fax: 607/255-2818
E-Mail: daniel.benjamin@gmail.com

Ori Heffetz
Johnson Graduate School of Management
Cornell University
324 Sage Hall
Ithaca, NY 14853
Tel: 607/255-4668
E-Mail: oh33@cornell.edu

Miles S. Kimball
Department of Economics
University of Michigan
Ann Arbor, MI  48109-1220
Tel: 734/764-2375
Fax: 734/764-2769
E-Mail: mkimball@umich.edu

Alex Rees-Jones
Economics Department
Cornell University
Ithaca, NY 14853
E-Mail: arr34@cornell.edu
AB  - Are subjective well-being (SWB) measures a good empirical proxy for utility? We evaluate one necessary assumption: that people’s preferences coincide with what they predict will maximize their SWB. Our method is to present survey respondents with hypothetical scenarios and elicit both choice and predicted SWB rankings of two alternatives. While choice and predicted SWB rankings usually coincide, we find systematic reversals. Furthermore, we identify factors—such as predicted sense of purpose, control over one‘s life, family happiness, and social status—that help explain choice controlling for predicted SWB. We explore how our findings vary with the SWB measure and the choice situation.
ER  -