ruut veenhoven (born 1942) is a dutch sociologist and a pioneer and world authority on the scientific study of happiness, in the sense of subjective enjoyment of life. his work on the social conditions for human happiness at erasmus university rotterdam in the netherlands, has contributed to a renewed interest in happiness as an aim for public policy. he has shown that happiness can be used a reliable measure to assess progress in societies which was one of the sources of inspiration for the united nations to adopt happiness measures as a holistic approach to development.