ESTADO DE BIENESTAR, FELICIDAD Y PRODUCCIÓN EN LA UE.

Abstract

The welfare state is envisaged as a political model whose main objective is to ensure equality of opportunity and to guarantee basic needs of those on low incomes through social policies. There are opposing positions about the economic utility, necessity, effectiveness and efficiency because this model would require a considerable demand of financial resources, mainly contributed by workers and companies through the different taxes paid according to their income. On the one hand, those who argue that it should be reduce government intervention until minimum as not to harm the economic activity and creating jobs. On the other hand, there are those who support the existence of the welfare state because it increases the productivity of the economy with the best human capital and social capital. This paper analyses social policies, happiness and productivity to assess the return of public spending to citizens in two ways: individual (subjective well-being) and economic (per capita production) of the countries of the EU in the year 2014.

Keywords

• Welfare State
• happiness
• productivity