The purpose of the work is to assess the impact of the basic philosophical ideas concerning the relationship between public welfare and subjective well-being on the development of happiness economics. The author uses the methods of interpretation, comparison and correlation analysis. The author considers the basic philosophical views on the relationship between public welfare and subjective well-being, as well as their impact on the A. Smith's works, the first theorist in happiness economics. Labour activity, moral perfection and eliminating social inequality are significant for public welfare and subjective well-being. The government affects the correlation between them and exercises educational and legislative functions. New paternalism reflects this idea and has an influence on the development of happiness economics. Research in this field gives the important information concerning the people’s subjective well-being for policy decision-makers at different levels of government. The article presents an assessment of the correlation between happiness, life satisfaction and commitment to the cultural values identified by the Schwartz’s method based on the European Social Survey data (the 8th wave data, 2016) among the population of the 18 participant countries. The study suggests some hypotheses that provide pointers for future research in the field of happiness economics. The method of testing hypothesis about the relationship between public welfare and subjective well-being is also proposed.
