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Cited by 441

The DOI matches its Crossref record; 42 of the 42 references it cites were found in a registry or an index.

Evolutionary Efficiency and Happiness

Open access
Rayo, Luis, Becker, Gary S.·2007·Journal of Political Economy
DOI 10.1086/516737
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Abstract

We model happiness as a measurement tool used to rank alternative actions. Evolution favors a happiness function that measures the individual’s success in relative terms. The optimal function is based on a time‐varying reference point—or performance benchmark—that is updated over time in a statistically optimal way in order to match the individual’s potential. Habits and peer comparisons arise as special cases of such an updating process. This updating also results in a volatile level of happiness that continuously reverts to its long‐term mean. Throughout, we draw a parallel with a problem of optimal incentives, which allows us to apply statistical insights from agency theory to the study of happiness.

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Metadata

Authors
Rayo, L., & Becker, G. S.
Venue
Journal of Political Economy
Publisher
University of Chicago Press
Published
2007-04
Volume
115
Issue
2
Pages
302-337
ISSN
  • 0022-3808 (ISSN-L)
  • 1537-534X
DOI
10.1086/516737
OpenAlex
W2102112353
Cited by
441
References
42
FWCI
42.22
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
green

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CoChat. (2026). Citation check: Evolutionary Efficiency and Happiness. https://app.cochat.ai/papers/10.1086/516737
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Rayo, L., & Becker, G. S. (2007). Evolutionary Efficiency and Happiness. Journal of Political Economy. https://doi.org/10.1086/516737

Data sources

Bibliographic data: Semantic Scholar, OpenAlex, Crossref.

Contains information from the Semantic Scholar Academic Graph Datasets, made available under the ODC Attribution License (ODC-BY 1.0).

Semantic Scholar’s data is described in: Kinney, R., et al. (2023). The Semantic Scholar Open Data Platform. arXiv:2301.10140.