Freedom and the Pursuit of Happiness An Economic and Political Perspective

This book is about the relationship between different concepts of freedom and happiness. The book's authors distinguish three concepts for which an empirical measure exists: opportunity to choose (negative freedom), capability to choose (positive freedom), and autonomy to choose (autonomy freedom). They also provide a comprehensive account of the relationship between freedom and well-being by comparing channels through which freedoms affect quality of life. The book also explores whether the different conceptions of freedom complement or replace each other in the determination of the level of well-being. In so doing, the authors make freedoms a tool for policy making and are able to say which conception is the most effective for well-being, as circumstances change. The results have implications for a justification of a free society: maximizing freedoms is good for its favorable consequences upon individual well-being, a fundamental value for the judgment of human advantage.

1. Introduction; 2. Individual well-being: theory and measurement; 3. Autonomy freedom and individual well-being; 4. Capability and individual well-being; 5. Economic freedom, political freedom and individual well-being; 6. Autonomy and negative freedom; 7. Autonomy and capability; 8. Autonomy, limited government, capability, and happiness; 9. Normative consequences of the pursuit of happiness.

Sebastiano Bavetta is Professor of Economics at Università degli Studi, Palermo, Italy and visiting professor at the University of Pennsylvania, where he teaches 'Economics of Freedom' in the Philosophy, Politics and Economics Program. He received his Ph.D. in the Philosophy of Economics from the London School of Economics and Political Science. His research interests have been concerned with issues in positive and normative economics, and in political theory. He has published several books, including The Economics of Freedom, with Pietro Navarra (Cambridge, 2012). His work has also appeared in several journals including Social Choice and Welfare, the Journal of Theoretical Politics, Constitutional Political Economy, Theory and Decision, and Economic Affairs.
Pietro Navarra is Rector and Professor of Public Sector Economics at Università degli Studi di Messina, Italy. He received his Ph.D. in Economics from the University of Buckingham. His research interests have focused on the working of political institutions and their effects on the functioning of the economy. He has published extensively in volumes of collected works and scientific journals including the Journal of International Business Studies, the European Journal of Political Economy, the Oxford Bulletin of Economics and Statistics, Public Choice, Constitutional Political Economy, the Global Strategy Journal, Economics of Governance, the Economics Bulletin, the International Business Review, Applied Economics, Economic Affairs, the Journal of Innovation Production Management, Mind and Society, Applied Economics Letters, and the Management International Review. Professor Navarra is also the author or editor of several books, including, most recently, The Economics of Freedom (with Sebastiano Bavetta, Cambridge, 2012).
Dario Maimone is Assistant Professor of Public Sector Economics at Università degli Studi di Messina, Italu. He received his Ph.D. in Economics from the University of Essex. He has been