Does GDP growth lead to prosperity in community?

Noting that a developed economy and wealth have a strong relationship with prosperity, Seyed Mohsen Tabatabaei Mozdabadi, the secretary of Iran Urban Economics Scientific Association (IUESA) said the relationship seems to be stronger and more intense in the less developed countries, but when it is studied longitudinally, this connection becomes more complex and dimmer.

Providing an instance in this regard, he said if gross domestic product is considered an indicator of development and wealth, it has grown to a satisfactory pace, but unfortunately, during this time, life satisfaction and the sense of happiness did not grow much. However, in some studies, a significant relationship between these two variables may be observed.

According to the longitudinal studies on the relationship between GDP and people’s happiness during 1956 to 1964 and then until 1967, the amount of GDP was associated with the sense of happiness of the people, but after 1970, this connection was dimmed, and to some extent it could be said that there was no significant relationship, he added.

Saying that data analysis of research in countries with different economies indicates that the relationship between wealth and GDP with happiness and satisfaction with life is not a requirement and there is no clear evidence that higher economic growth rates are associated with higher levels of happiness, he further said the doubling rate of economic growth does not mean doubling the amount of happiness and the sense of mental well-being and life satisfaction, although in the short term and during the transition period there may be a relationship between the two, and research also confirms this, but this relationship may even be declining in long-term.

Referring to china, he said over the past two decades, the country has had a very positive and upward economic growth, and its GDP has succeeded globally and in the automotive industry has become a progressive country, but the satisfaction of life and the sense of happiness perceived by its people did not have much growth.

In 2011, American Academy of Social Sciences concluded that economic growth cannot guarantee sense of happiness, as it was expected that, in the last two decades, the real annual income increased four times, the same or even slightly lower, the perceived happiness would increase, but during the surveys, no significant increases were reported, he further said.

According to a research done in 17 developed countries, 9 developing countries, 11 countries in transition, and 17 countries in Latin America and China, it was observed that the relationship between wealth and the developed economy is positively related to the level of prosperity, but as time passes, the relationship will be negative, Tabatabaei said.

Stating that a few scientific studies have been conducted on the relationship between bad economic situation, unemployment and the recession with a sense of frustration and lack of sense of happiness, he said the sense of happiness and mental well-being are complex structures that cannot be measured and explained by a variable, but they also have wide aspects like other human features that should be investigated generally.

Economy, wealth, and money may save the person from suffering and act as a very important, vital, and influential assumption of human satisfaction, but there is no scientific evidence to suggest that these factors can lead to human happiness, the vice-president of IUESA said.