Mirror, Mirror on the Wall, Who is the Happiest of Them All?

Abstract

This paper turns Snow-White's magic mirror onto recent economics Nobel Prize winners, top economists and happiness researchers, and through the eyes of the man in the street seeks to determine who the happiest academic is. The study not only provides a clear answer to this question but also unveils who is the ladies' man and who is the sweetheart of the aged. It also explores the extent to which information matters and whether individuals' self-reported happiness affects their perceptions about the happiness of these superstars in economics.