This book draws together the latest work from scholars around the world using subjective well-being data to understand and compare well-being across countries and cultures. Starting from many different vantage points, the authors reached a consensus that many measures of subjective well-being, ranging from life evaluations through emotional states, based on memories and current evaluations, merit broader collection and analysis. Using data from the Gallup World Poll, the World Values Survey, and other internationally comparable surveys, the authors document wide divergences among countries in all measures of subjective well-being, The international differences are greater for life evaluations than for emotions. Despite the well-documented differences in the ways in which subjective evaluations change through time and across cultures, the bulk of the very large international differences in life evaluations are due to differences in life circumstances rather than differences in the way these differences are evaluated.

Endearingly, the differences between Rick Davies and Roger Hodgson were key ingredients in what would become the musical and writing chemistry of Supertramp - a band that made a fascinating and diverse contribution to music. From their first commercial breakthrough in 1974 with Crime Of The Century, they exceeded their own expectations with the colossal success of Breakfast In America in 1979. But it was never a smooth journey. With ups and downs financially, commercially and in terms of their working relationship, Supertramp lived the highs and lows of the music business. From local gigs to many highly demanding tours, this book documents it all. As Roger Hodgson once said, "The music always came pretty easily. Both the music and the lyrics come from the same place. For me, composing is literally losing myself in the music. I let the inspiration just come naturally. It is a very magical process. When I start hearing melodies, then I just start singing and the words start coming. The words will have something to do with what I am going through in my life, or what's in my heart at the time. I will have an idea of what the song's about and then work with the melody."

In this volume, the authors explain the reasons why subjective indicators of well-being are needed. They describe how these indicators can offer useful input and provide examples of policy uses of well-being measures. They describe the validity of the subjective well-being measures as well as potential problems. The authors then delve into objections to the use of subjective well-being indicators for policy purposes and discuss why these objections are not warranted. Finally, they describe the measures that are currently in use and the types of measures that are most likely to be valuable in the policy domain. The volume will be of interest to researchers in psychology and economics.