The Efficiency of Subjective Well-being: a Key of Latin American Development

Abstract

This chapter compares the development of Latin American countries with that of traditionally developed nations, based on several international indicators of well-being and sustainability that have emerged in the last decade. It is argued that in Latin America there is a specific type of development, which could be understood as an alternative path to the traditional model of social progress. The key to understand this type of development would be "the efficiency of subjective well-being": people get high happiness and life satisfaction with lower economic, state and environmental costs than in traditionally developed countries. It is suggested that the cohesion and quality of family ties is a key factor to explain this particular form of development: in Latin America the family has a relevant role in social security and at the same time would be important to explain the outstanding levels of subjective well-being