AbstractSubjective information about people's quality of life has always received bad press in the human development paradigm and the capability approach, despite their influence in the promotion of human‐centred policies. But, there are arguments put forward by their founders, Amartya Sen and Martha Nussbaum, that subjective information, or happiness, can play several important roles in thinking about human development policies. Thus, the purpose of this paper is to examine how happiness can be part of human development and capability strategies. For this aim, Sen and Nussbaum's views on happiness will be reviewed and compared to understand the value of subjective information in their work. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.