ABSTRACT
This conclusion presents some closing thoughts on key concepts discussed in the preceding chapters of this book. The book presents policy implications and speculated as to their possible effects on the pattern of economic growth. It offers reinterpretation of Tibor Scitovsky's The Joyless Economy and related articles by taking advantage of recent research in the Economics of Happiness and other fields. It then offers an original approach to human welfare which brings happiness into economic theory by distinguishing two dynamic and endogenous pathways which remind the ancient contraposition between hedonism and eudaimonia. The book offers explanation of why the economy may fail to bring happiness to people, thus contributing to better understanding of the empirical problem called the Easterlin paradox. The reinterpretation of Scitovskys works has shown that his aim to study human welfare, which pertains to how people can lead happy lives, should be distinguished from his aim to describe people's behaviour as consumers of market products.
