This article,How not to buy happiness, suggests that it can if you use the extra money to shorten a commute or otehrwise alleviate stress in your life. “… if we use an increase in our incomes, as many of us do, simply to buy bigger houses and more expensive cars, then we do not end up any happier than before. But if we use an increase in our incomes to buy more of certain inconspicuous goods–such as freedom from a long commute or a stressful job–then the evidence paints a very different picture.”