The determinants of happiness are remarkably similar around the world, in countries as different as Afghanistan, the U.S, and Chile. Income matters to happiness but only so much; friends, freedom, and employment are good for happiness, while crime, poor health, and divorce are bad. Paradoxically, however, people in places like Afghanistan can be as happy as those in much wealthier and safer ones like Chile. One explanation is the remarkable human capacity to adapt to adversity and hardship. While adaptation may be a good thing for individual wellbeing, it can also result in collective tolerance for bad equilibrium which are difficult for societies to escape from.

Carol Graham is Senior Fellow and Charles Robinson Chair at the Brookings Institution, and College Park Professor at the University of Maryland. She has been a Vice President at Brookings and a Special Advisor to the Vice President of the Inter-American Development Bank. Graham is the author of numerous books- most recently Happiness Around the World: The Paradox of Happy Peasants and Miserable Millionaires (Oxford University Press) - and has published articles in a range of journals including the World Bank Research Observer, Health Affairs, the Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization, and the Journal of Socio-Economics. She has an A.B. from Princeton, an M.A. from Johns Hopkins, and a PhD from Oxford University.

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