Editorial introduction [March 2016]

Happiness, well-being and life satisfaction are topics that are attracting increasing attention from policy makers, and even from economists. In this issue, we publish work undertaken by researchers from the European Policies Research Centre (EPRC) and the Fraser of Allander Institute (Sara Davies, Stewart Dunlop and Kim Swales) at the University of Strathclyde. They seek to ask a simple question: is happiness or life satisfaction related to where you live in Scotland? They provide evidence to back up previous research that indicates lower levels of ‘happiness’ in Scotland’s cities, though they find that ‘happiness’ is greatest those rural areas that have good access to Scotland’s cities. The good life, it appears may be one of ‘having one’s cake and eating it’.