Subjective and Objective Well-Being in Relation to Economic Inputs: Puzzles and Responses

Introduction
I want to address the systematic and large discrepancies between direct well-being measures and the measures that economists largely concentrate on; for example the discrepancies between subjective well-being and income. I will primarily consider the significance and implications of such discrepancies and the range of possible responses. Amongst such responses, much economics has continued to focus overwhelmingly on income and expenditure, and I will consider some ways that it has managed to do so. To answer why economics has followed that questionable route requires another study. In Section 1 we look at the allocation of attention across the various measures. Section 2 explores the issue of discrepancy between income measures and well-being measures, with special reference to subjective well-being (SWB). Section 3 rejects claims that income is satisfactorily correlated with well-being measures; the claims seem to misread the socio-economic significance of the many regression exercises that find weak even if statistically significant linkages, especially between income and SWB. Section 4 further clears the way, by deepening the conceptualization of well-being. Section 5 is then able to investigate a series of responses to the discrepancies, including some evasions or arguments that SWB is of little importance and that choice is what matters – having a choice, having more choice, getting one’s choice – or else simply being active.