Homo Economicus

Daniel Cohen is a French economist and a professor at the école d'économie de Paris as well as a senior advisor to the bank Lazard. Susan Emanuel is the author of Homo Economicus: The - Lost - Prophet of Modern Times, published by Wiley.

• Acknowledgements viIntroduction 11 Gross Domestic Happiness 52 Work: A Diminishing Value 203 The Decline of Empire 344 De-Centring the World 545 The Great Western Crisis 766 Darwin's Nightmare 917 The Postmodern Condition 106Conclusion 124Notes 127Index 145

"What are we losing, as we are increasingly pressured to define the pursuit of happiness in narrowly economic terms? That is the question Daniel Cohen asks – and indeed answers – with frequently piercing new insights in this thought-provoking combination of ancient history, sociology, psychology and alternative economics."Colin Crouch, University of Warwick "The economy is the driving force of our world but to what end?  In a fascinating book, the economist Daniel Cohen offers a long-term perspective on the relation between the search for individual happiness and the market.  He shows how the market, in imposing its own model and valuing competition above everything else, has disrupted the relations between human beings.  The emergence and eventual triumph of Homo Economicus has led to the collapse or stagnation of the indicators of wellbeing in the most advanced countries."Libération "Find happiness, or try to achieve it: a topic addressed often in the past by literature or philosophy is now a topic for economics.   In Homo Economicus, the economist Daniel Cohen shows how our ultra-competitive societies have disrupted social relations and undermined all the indicators of wellbeing. He starts from a sombre fact: never before has so much wealth been created, never have people had access to so many goods, and yet they are not happier – if anything they are less happy.  Why?"Le Monde"A highly readable, thought-provoking critique."Political Studies Review