Beyond meeting basic needs, income keeps rising but its contribution to wellbeing flattens out, while social connection keeps paying off — happiness economics tracks that shifting balance.
wellbeing ~ log(income) + connection_weight * social_ties
(Easterlin-paradox style diminishing income returns)
- Population agents — individuals whose income and social ties are both tracked.
- Social connection nodes — opportunities for meaningful social interaction available in the model.
- Income growth rate — how fast agents' income grows over time.
- Social-connection value — how strongly social ties (versus income alone) contribute to measured wellbeing.
The Easterlin Paradox — national happiness plateauing even as income keeps rising — is exactly the diminishing-returns pattern this model reproduces.