Sriram Balasubramanian and Paul Cashin, “Gross National Happiness and Macroeconomic Indicators in the Kingdom of Bhutan.” IMF Working Paper WP/19/15, January 2019.
• The population of Bhutan is about 735,000 people, who are much influenced by the state religion, the Vajrayana tradition in Buddhism. "At the core of this philosophy are the key components of compassion and respect for all, and for the government to take care of its citizens [p. 3]." [The promotion of GNH has not stood in the way of alleged horrific behavior towards the ethnic Nepalese population in Bhutan, particularly in the 1990s.]
• Since 1972, Bhutan has emphasized Gross National Happiness (GNH), not Gross National Product (GNP) (or Gross Domestic Product), and that emphasis is now enshrined in Bhutan's Constitution. The Bhutanese commitment to GNH does not imply that GNP is shunned as a development indicator.
• Pillars of GNH: (1) sustainable, equitable development; (2) cultural promotion; (3) environmental protection; and, (4) good governance. The Bhutanese also apply their GNH approach within nine more specific domains, such as health and the allocation of time.
• Despite a rather phenomenal increase in per-capita income over the past forty years, GNH in Bhutan has not risen much -- shades of Easterlin. A report on Bhutan's 2015 GNH survey is available here.
• Men are significantly happier (on average) than women in Bhutan; urban dwellers are happier than rural folks. The least happy occupation in Bhutan is farming.
• Poverty reduction in Bhutan has been significant: "the poverty rate in Bhutan has declined from 23.2 percent in 2007, to 12 percent in 2012, and further to 8.2 percent in 2017 [p. 20]." Urban poverty is quite small.
