In 1974, Richard Easterlin published research that would have made Buddha smile. In a famous paper that asked “Does Economic Growth Improve the Human Lot?”, the economist presented data that gave rise to what is known as the “Easterlin paradox”. For as the term suggests, his results seemed contradictory. In any country, at any point in time, richer people are on average happier than poorer people. However, Easterlin also discovered that as countries and people become richer their levels of reported happiness do not show any signs of increasing. Hence the paradox.
1974年，理察•伊斯特林(Richard Easterlin)發表了一項可能會讓佛祖發笑的研究成果。在一篇題爲《經濟成長能提升人類福祉嗎？》(Does Economic Growth Improve the Human Lot?)的著名論文中，經濟學家伊斯特林列出數據，推導出了所謂的「伊斯特林悖論」。顧名思義，他得出的結果似乎自相矛盾。在任何國家，任何時點，有錢人一般比窮人更幸福。然而，伊斯特林還發現，隨著國家和人們變得更加富裕，他們報告的幸福水準並沒有顯示出提高的跡象。這就是伊斯特林悖論。