Daniel Kahneman
I have come across the name Daniel Kahneman in the press recently, and now I have read an article about his work. Daniel Kahneman is a psychologist, and works on basic questions people have like “Rather rich and healthy than poor and sick?” - “Can I trust my intuition?” - “Happiness through money is an illusion”. Daniel Kahneman received the Nobel Prize in 2002 for his work.
For me personally the most interesting aspect is that that in the last 40 years prosperity in the industrialised world has strongly risen, in particular per-capita income. But individual experienced happiness has not risen equivalently, but has remained more or less constant. Studies have shown that the income in Japan was five times as high in 1987 as in 1958, while the Japanese felt no happier than before. This helps explain the strong ageing of the population and dropping birth rate a little. The industrialised countries in particular have to struggle with this phenomenon, as a dropping birth rate threatens society.
So in times of “Asset inflation – bubbles in some finance markets” and here in Germany even with “Child benefit – parental benefit”, his research results should get more attention here, I think ;-)
I am thinking of buying Daniel Kahneman's book "Choices, Values, and Frames".
