3 Even though I hope I have persuaded you that purely economic measures of personal wellbeing are not as narrow as sometimes thought, I have so far dodged the key questions: Ultimately, what makes us happy? What makes our lives satisfying in the long run?
That this is still believed to be so is a sad conclusion, as it seems to imply that not much has been achieved since the eruption of the global financial crisis in terms of the regulatory set-up and the practice of policymaking. I only partly share this conclusion, as I believe that in many fields solid progress has been obtained.