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Staff Biography

[Photo: Richard LAYARD] Professor Richard LAYARD
Programme Director - Wellbeing
Tel:  020 7955 7281
Email: r.layard@lse.ac.uk
R453  Zone 04

Curriculum Vitae PDF 
Expertise: wellbeing, labour, unemployment, educational policy, happiness

Richard Layard was founder-director of the LSE Centre for Economic Performance, a large research centre covering most areas of economic policy. Since 2000 he has been a member of the House of Lords.

He has written widely on unemployment, inflation, education, inequality and post-Communist reform. He was an early advocate of the welfare-to-work approach to unemployment, and co-authored the influential book Unemployment: Macroeconomic Performance and the Labour Market (OUP 1991).

From 1997-2001 he helped implement these policies as a consultant to the Labour government. He was also involved in educational policy development for the non-graduate workforce.

Happiness research
Richard Layard always thought that the ultimate aim of public policy is to make people happier. In recent years he has been actively involved in the new science of happiness, and in 2005 published Happiness: Lessons from a New Science.

Mental illness is probably the single greatest threat to a happy life, and for this reason Richard Layard is currently leading a campaign to provide within the NHS evidence-based psychological therapy for people with clinical depression and chronic anxiety disorder. The Depression Report, published in July 2006, is the manifesto for this campaign.

Finally, Richard Layard is also active in other happiness promoting policies, such as the emotional aspects of children's education, and initiatives by local authorities to monitor and improve the happiness of the population in their area.

Further information:
He founded the Employment Institute in 1985 to press for action to prevent long-term unemployment and was its Chairman from 1987-92. After Labour came to power, he was from 1997-2001 a government consultant on policies towards unemployment (including the New Deal) and towards skills.

He was Chairman of the European Commission's Macroeconomic Policy Group in the 1980s and then co-Chairman of the World Economy Group set up by WIDER. From 1991-97 he was an economic adviser to the Russian government's economic staff.

He has been on the staff of LSE since 1964. Before that he taught in a comprehensive school and was the Senior Research Officer for the Robbins Committee on Higher Education.

Selected Publications:

Writings on happiness

“Measuring subjective well-being", Science, Vol 327, Pages 534-5, January 2010

"Why subjective well-being should be the measure of progress", given at the OECD World Forum on “Statistics, Knowledge and Policy - Charting Progress, Building Visions, Improving Life", Busan, Korea - 27-30 October 2009

The Greatest Happiness Principle: Its time has come”, Well-being: How to lead the good life and what government should do to help, (eds) S Griffiths and R Reeves, Social Market Foundation, July 2009

"The Return of Happiness: Why wellbeing should be at the heart of politics", Prospect, March 2005

Happiness

Happiness : Lessons from a new science Penguin, February 2005. Download Annex

Lionel Robbins Memorial Lectures delivered at LSE on 3rd, 4th and 5th March 2003:
Happiness: Has Social Science A Clue?
Lecture 1: What is happiness? Are we getting happier?
Lecture 2: Income and happiness: rethinking economic policy
Lecture 3: How can we make a happier society

Happiness and public policy: a challenge to the profession, Economic Journal, 116, C24-C33, March 2006

“Rethinking Public Economics: The Implications of Rivalry and Habit” in L. Bruni and P. L. Porta (eds) Economics and Happiness, Oxford University Press, 2005

“The marginal utility of income” (with S. Nickell and G. Mayraz),  Journal of Public Economics, Special Issue: Happiness and Public Economics (eds) T. Besley and E. Saez, Vol 92, Nos 8-9, August 2008

“Does Relative Income Matter? Are the Critics Right?" (with G. Mayraz and S. Nickell) in E Diener, J Helliwell and D Kahneman (eds)  International Differences in Well-Being, Oxford University Press, New York, forthcoming

 

Writings on mental health

"A new deal for depression and anxiety", July 2007

The Depression Report: A New Deal for Depression and Anxiety Disorders, The Centre for Economic Performance's Mental Health Policy group, June 2006

“The case for psychological treatment centres”, BMJ, 332: 1030-2, April 2006

“Improving Access to Psychological Therapy: Initial Evaluation of Two UK Demonstration Sites” (with D Clark, R Smithies, D Richards, R Suckling and B Wright), Behaviour Research and Therapy, Vol 47, Issue 8, Pages 637-728, August 2009

Good Childhood Report

A Good Childhood: Searching for Values in a Competitive Age - Penguin, February 2009
Launch of the Report
4 February 2009

"Child Mental Health: Key to a Healthier Society", August 2008

"Improving Tier 2-3 CAMHS", July 2009

"Improving Tier 2-3 CAMHS: Revised Proposal", August 2009

 

Writings on unemployment/skills

Note on unemployment policy and the crisis, IZA Policy Forum - “The Global Economic Crisis and the Labor Markets” 6th IZA Prize in Labor Economics, 22 October 2009

"A Job Guarantee", with Paul Gregg, March 2009

“Unemployment experience: some implications for France”, Travail et Emploi, DARES, No 118, April-June 2009

“Full Employment for Europe” in (eds) A Lopez-Claros, M Porter and K Schwab The Global Competitiveness Report 2005-2006: Policies Underpinning Rising Prosperity,World Economic Forum, 2005

“Apprenticeship and the skills gap” in “Learning to Succeed: the next decade”, the National Commission on Education Follow-up Group, Occasional Paper, University of Brighton, 2003

“Labour Market Institutions and Economic Performance” (with S. Nickell) in O. Ashenfelter and D Card (eds),  Handbook of Labour Economics, Vol. 3C, North-Holland, 1999

“Welfare-to-Work and the Fight against Long-Term Unemployment” (with T. Boeri and S. Nickell), Research Brief No. 206, Department for Education and Skills, London, June 2000

Unemployment: Macroeconomic Performance and the Labour Market, (with S. Nickell and R. Jackman) Oxford University Press, 2nd ed., 2005

 

See also Publications on LSE Research Online book

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