Oh, happy day!

FEELING FINE: Economics is often referred to as "the dismal science", but a new and growing branch of economics has a decidedly upbeat focus. "Happiness economics" looks at what makes people happy and at ways to measure happiness. Now George MacKerron, an environmental economist at the London School of Economics (LSE), has created “Mappiness ”, a free iPhone app that asks people how happy they are.

Various studies and reports have looked at, for example, how income influences happiness, and at whether happiness results in greater productivity. But happiness remains a bit difficult to measure. Experts, including Richard Layard at LSE and Daniel Gilbert, a professor of psychology at Harvard University, often rely on data gathered from relatively small groups of people.

The Mappiness software asks people several times a day where they are, who they are with, etc. With this data, MacKerron hopes to measure the effects our natural surroundings have on our happiness. He reports that since August, when he launched the software, about 32,000 people have taken part, about ten times as many as he expected.

Mountains, pine trees, sunshine and free time make us happy.

So, what makes us happy? At the top of the list are mountains, fresh air, pine trees, sunshine and free time. Being ill in bed is the least happy activity. MacKerron says he is happy to find that the results have so far brought few surprises.

“People are happier at the weekend than in the week. People are happier when they are not at work, when the sun is shining and so on,” MacKerron told The Observer. “It has been great that the things that you expect to make people happy, make people happy.”