{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,7,24]],"date-time":"2026-07-24T11:09:15Z","timestamp":1784891355219,"version":"3.55.0"},"reference-count":28,"publisher":"American Economic Association","issue":"1","content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["Journal of Economic Perspectives"],"published-print":{"date-parts":[[2006,2,1]]},"abstract":"<jats:p> Direct reports of subjective well-being may have a useful role in the measurement of consumer preferences and social welfare, if they can be done in a credible way. Can well-being be measured by a subjective survey, even approximately? In this paper, we discuss research on how individuals' responses to subjective well-being questions vary with their circumstances and other factors. We will argue that it is fruitful to distinguish among different conceptions of utility rather than presume to measure a single, unifying concept that motivates all human choices and registers all relevant feelings and experiences. While various measures of well-being are useful for some purposes, it is important to recognize that subjective well-being measures features of individuals' perceptions of their experiences, not their utility as economists typically conceive of it. Those perceptions are a more accurate gauge of actual feelings if they are reported closer to the time of, and in direct reference to, the actual experience. We conclude by proposing the U-index, a misery index of sorts, which measures the proportion of time that people spend in an unpleasant state, and has the virtue of not requiring a cardinal conception of individuals' feelings. <\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.1257\/089533006776526030","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2006,4,8]],"date-time":"2006-04-08T15:50:40Z","timestamp":1144511440000},"page":"3-24","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":2126,"title":["Developments in the Measurement of Subjective Well-Being"],"prefix":"10.1257","volume":"20","author":[{"given":"Daniel","family":"Kahneman","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Eugene Higgins Professor of Psychology and Public Affairs, Princeton University, Princeton, New Jersey."}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Alan B","family":"Krueger","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Bendheim Professor of Economics and Public Affairs, Princeton University, Princeton, New Jersey."}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]}],"member":"11","reference":[{"key":"p_2","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1037\/0022-3514.36.8.917"},{"key":"p_3","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1016\/0047-2727(95)01564-7"},{"key":"p_6","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1097\/01.PSY.0000077508.57784.DA"},{"key":"p_8","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1037\/0033-2909.95.3.542"},{"key":"p_9","first-page":"434","author":"Diener Ed","year":"1999","journal-title":"Well-Being: The Foundations of Hedonic Psychology. 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