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MONEY can’t buy me love – but can we put a cash value on the loss of a loved one? According to Nick Powdthavee’s breezy summary of recent research at the border between economics and psychology, we can.

Exploring the nature of well-being, the research Powdthavee reports probes fundamental aspects of the human condition with endearingly crude instruments. Compiling self-reported estimates of happiness after winning the lottery lacks the psychological nuances of, say, a Tolstoy novel.

For a book which promises startling new findings, it left me singularly unstartled. The fact that having children produces no lasting increase in happiness, for instance, strikes me as obvious to any clear-eyed observer. Maybe that’s because, as my children will tell you, I am a miserable git. But I am happy with that.