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Historical analysis of national subjective wellbeing using millions of digitised books: Introducing the HPS Index

Historical analysis of national subjective wellbeing using millions of digitised books: Introducing the HPS Index

Thomas Hills, Eugenio Proto, Daniel Sgroi, The CAGE Background Briefing Series No. 60, July 2016
background briefing series,policy briefing,behavioural economics and wellbeing

Thomas Hills, Eugenio Proto, Daniel Sgroi, The CAGE Background Briefing Series No. 60, July 2016

With records of subjective wellbeing going back less than half a century, this column asks if we can know the impact of key past events on the happiness of our ancestors. It presents a new historical index that draws on millions of digitised books in the Google Books corpus of words using sentiment analysis. The index – which goes back to the 1776 US Declaration of Independence, 200 years earlier than any other index of happiness – makes it possible to analyse the historical drivers of happiness in France, Germany, Italy, Spain, the UK and the US.

Behavioural Economics and Wellbeing