ABSTRACT
The Economics of Happiness was born in the mid-1970s, and was weaned at the end of the 1990s when it establishes itself as a distinct branch of economics. The positions of Sen and Heckman thus make evident the importance of agency, and, together with the Economics of Happiness, the necessity to draw heavily on psychology. Therefore, the study of happiness in economics is becoming highly complex because of its deep historical roots, the number of questions and controversies that it involves, and the proliferation of the related fields, including extra-economic ones. The Encyclopaedists, who belong among the founders of Western culture, had no doubts that human progress meant the development of mans moral and intellectual faculties and at the same time, the development of economic conditions adequate for the entire population and their happiness. The departure of the economic analysis of individual behaviour from the social dimension, was typical in the classical economists and Mill, was made clear by Pareto.
