Money is better than poverty, as Woody Allen once said, if only for financial reasons.

Still, many studies have found that the equation between happiness and money is a conundrum. Average incomes have more than doubled in that period and we have more food and cars, bigger houses, central heating, better health, a shorter working week and overseas holidays. But people are no happier. The picture gets even more complicated when you compare countries. Population surveys show that among Western industrial nations, the richer states are no happier than the poorer ones.

But now a new study suggests money does buy happiness, according to a New York Times report. The two University of Pennsylvania economists Betsey Stevenson and Justin Wolfers found that life satisfaction is highest in the richest countries and that absolute income seems to matter more than relative income.

There is a lot to be said about the importance of money for lifestyles and satisfaction. Simply put, having enough money gives you a lot more freedom and flexibility.

But the picture is more complicated than that. I have done blog entries looking at economic studies showing that the pursuit of growth, choice and wealth can make people unhappy by leaving them impatient and dissatisfied.

In any case, the findings of these sorts of studies need to be taken with a grain of salt because here are no objective global standards or metrics to gauge a subjective emotional state like happiness. No one has come up with the perfect device for measuring happiness.

I explain why in my column here.