In a society marked by extreme inequality of income and opportunity, why should economists care about how people feel? The truth is that feelings of well-being are critical metrics that predict future life outcomes. In this timely and innovative account, economist Carol Graham argues for the importance of hope鈥攍ittle studied in economics at present鈥攁s an independent dimension of well-being. Given America鈥檚 current mental health crisis, thrown into stark relief by COVID, hope may be the most important measure of well-being, and researchers are tracking trends in hope as a key factor in understanding the rising numbers of 鈥渄eaths of despair鈥� and premature mortality.
Graham, an authority on the study of well-being, points to empirical evidence demonstrating that hope can improve people鈥檚 life outcomes and that despair can destroy them. These findings, she argues, merit deeper exploration. Graham discusses the potential of novel well-being metrics as tracking indicators of despair, reports on new surveys of hope among low-income adolescents, and considers the implications of the results for the futures of these young adults.
Graham asks how and why the wealthiest country in the world has such despair. What are we missing? She argues that public policy problems鈥攆rom joblessness and labor force dropout to the lack of affordable health care and inadequate public education鈥攃an鈥檛 be solved without hope. Drawing on research in well-being and other disciplines, Graham describes strategies for restoring hope in populations where it has been lost. The need to address despair, and to restore hope, is critical to America鈥檚 future.
Carol Graham is Leo Pasvolsky Senior Fellow at the Brookings Institution and College Park Professor at the University of Maryland. She is the author of Happiness around the World: The Paradox of Happy Peasants and Miserable Millionaires; The Pursuit of Happiness: An Economy of Well-Being; Happiness for All? Unequal Hopes and Lives in Pursuit of the American Dream (Princeton); and other books, as well as numerous articles in academic journals. Katherine Fenton is an award-winning voice actor and the narrator of many audiobooks, including Ira Levin’s Rosemary’s Baby, Elizabeth Gilbert’s The Last American Man, and The Shock Doctrine by Naomi Klein.
鈥淧eople who have hope also have a better future. Thanks to Carol Graham, we now have empirical evidence that hopefulness and not just objective circumstances matter, often in surprising ways. Read this book to learn more not just about the power of hope but about an entire body of work to which she has so ably and persistently contributed.鈥濃�擨sabel Sawhill, author of Forgotten Americans
鈥淚n this study of hope and despair, Carol Graham once again applies her economist鈥檚 empirical perspective to people鈥檚 internal feelings, a hitherto verboten subject in economics. A truly pathbreaking volume!鈥濃�擱ichard A. Easterlin, University of Southern California
鈥淚f you care about improving people鈥檚 lives, this is the book for you. Hope is crucial for starting that journey. Graham explains what all of us鈥攁nd governments and businesses鈥攎ust do to reach the goal of better well-being for all.鈥濃�擥us O鈥橠onnell, former Cabinet Secretary, United Kingdom
鈥淭his fine book fills a yawning gap. Hope, as it shows, is vital for well-being and for effective living. So who is hopeful and why? Read the book.鈥濃�擱ichard Layard, author of Happiness: Lessons from a New Science
鈥淚n this remarkable book, Carol Graham, a distinguished researcher in the field of human well-being, takes us in a strikingly new direction. Her evidence unveils the vital role that hope plays in our lives.鈥濃�擜ndrew Oswald, University of Warwick
鈥淗ere is a thoughtful, evidence-based, thoroughly readable treatise on the nature of hope. Graham ties high 鈥榙eaths of despair鈥� among white, low-income Americans to their lack of hope and personal agency; for them America鈥檚 Horatio Alger myth of individually driven progress is a heavy burden. The contrast with less well-off but more hopeful Black Americans is striking. Survey results in Peru, St. Louis, and elsewhere show the policy logic of periodically taking a society鈥檚 temperature.鈥濃�擭ancy Birdsall, founding president of the Center for Global Development
