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Kiwis happy lot

AUSTRALIA may well be richer than New Zealand, but it lags behind in one global study of what really matters in life: happiness.

New Zealand is the eighth happiest country in the world and Australia is 11th according to a paper issued by Study of Labour in Bonn.

The study was pointed out by expatriate New Zealander John McMillan, a professor of economics at America's Stanford University, who thinks New Zealand beats itself up too much about its position in OECD wealth tables.

The subject has been a preoccupation of business lobbyists. "Getting to the top-half of the OECD is a bogus target," Mr McMillan said.

The institute working paper challenged a Human Development Index produced by the United Nations, which ranks Australia third in the world and New Zealand 18th.

Institute social science researchers David Blanchflower and

Andrew Oswald found very low job-satisfaction levels in Australia and low general happiness. They documented this in Happiness and the Human Development Index: The Paradox of Australia.

Mr McMillan says Australians don't know how lucky they are. "Plainly put, Australians are whingers. The broader lesson for New Zealand is that the focus on getting back into the top half of the OECD may be overdone, for what it means to be in the top half is an open question."

Income per head was just one way of comparing living standards. The institute asks what is the appropriate goal of economic and social policy. In a country where people were starving, the goal was economic growth. But as nations became richer, greater wealth did not buy happiness.

In general, a graph of happiness versus age is U-shaped and women report higher well-being than men.

Australia ranked 26th out of 35 countries in job satisfaction; New Zealand was 17th. Australia was just ahead of Bulgaria.