This centre is a member of The LSE Research Laboratory [RLAB]:     CASE | CEE | CEP | FMG | SERC | STICERDCookies?

LSE CEP LSE
Centre for Economic Performance (CEP)
Programmes and courses|
Research and expertise|
Supporting LSE|
About LSE|
Index | Contacts
LSE Home > RLAB > Centre for Economic Performance >

Staff Biography

[Photo: Richard LAYARD] Professor Richard LAYARD
Programme Director - Wellbeing
Tel:  020 7955 7281
Email: r.layard@lse.ac.uk
Room/Desk: 32L 2.13  

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

A report published on Monday 18 June by the London School of Economics reveals the horrific scale of mental illness in Britain – and how little the NHS does about it. Mental illness is now nearly a half of all ill health suffered by people under 65 – and it is more disabling than most chronic physical disease. Yet only a quarter of those involved are in any form of treatment.

"How Mental Illness Loses Out in the NHS" is by the Mental Health Policy Group – a distinguished team of economists, psychologists, doctors and NHS managers convened by Professor Lord Layard of the LSE Centre for Economic Performance.

World Happiness Report

Monday 2 April 2012 saw the launch of the first World Happiness Report, which Richard Layard co-edited.

The Report was commissioned for the United Nations Conference on Happiness (mandated by the UN General Assembly) which took place at the UN Headquarters in New York.

More information about the report is available here.

 

Richard Layard's talk on 6th March 2012 in the CEP 21st Birthday Lecture Series - Mental Health: The New Frontier for the Welfare State - is available here, along with the slides.

Overview: Mental illness is the greatest hidden problem in our society. Tackling it would do more than anything else to raise our national wellbeing. Mental health is crucial for our quality of life and it also has huge effects on our ability to learn, to work and to be a good parent. There are many excellent ways of promoting mental health and treating mental illness, but they are not properly available in any country. So mental health is the new frontier for the Welfare State.

Lecture details here

Richard Layard is a labour economist who worked for most of his life on how to reduce unemployment and inequality. He is also one of the first economists to work on happiness, and his main current interest is how better mental health could improve our social and economic life.

Happiness

He has always believed, like the 18th Century Enlightenment, that societies should be judged by the happiness of the people. And since the 1970s he has urged fellow economists to return to the 18th and 19th century idea that public policy should maximise a social welfare function depending on the distribution of happiness. In 1980 he wrote, according to Richard Easterlin, "the first paper to focus specifically on the policy implications of empirical research on happiness". In 2005 he published Happiness: Lessons from a New Science. A second edition was published in April this year, with a new part in which he responds to the critics and clarifies his argument. He continues to find significant effects of relative income on happiness and to emphasise the importance of non-income variables on aggregate happiness.

In particular he stresses the role of mental health and argues that psychological treatments ought to be much more widely available. Among other good effects, they pay for themselves through increased employment and reduced costs of other healthcare. His work here, with the distinguished psychologist David Clark, has led to major changes in the British National Health Service.

In 2009 he co-authored the Good Childhood Report which emphasised the importance of early intervention to improve the mental health of children. The Report's proposals have again led to major initiatives in British healthcare. He is also actively involved in promoting mental health in schools.

His future research will further clarify how far early mental health interventions can improve adult incomes. This will contribute to a popular book on mental health written jointly with David Clark and Molly Meacher.

Like many others, Layard has pushed governments to measure the wellbeing of the population and was delighted when the British Prime Minister David Cameron announced in November 2010 that wellbeing would be a major government objective and be regularly measured in the national statistics.(Click here for his speech at the Conference launching this initiative)

Worldwide, there is now a search for new models of progress. Professor Layard currently chairs the World Economic Forum Global Agenda Council on Health and Wellbeing, which produced a report at Davos in January 2012, “WellBeing and Global Success”. The OECD has for some years been attempting to redefine progress, and in July last year the UN General Assembly advocated greater priority for policies that promote happiness. In April 2012, the United Nations held a high-level meeting on what this involves, and Richard co-edited (with Jeff Sachs and John Helliwell) a World Happiness Report.

Richard Layard's concern with how to promote a happier society led him to co-found a new movement called Action for Happiness, which was launched in Spring 2011. Members from all backgrounds pledge to live so as to create as much happiness as they can and as little misery. The movement already has more than 20,000 members from over 120 countries.

Unemployment, skills and inequality

On unemployment, Layard and colleagues developed in the 1980s the Layard-Nickell model of how the level of unemployment is determined. This has become the most commonly used model by European economists and governments. It assigns an important role to how unemployed people are treated, and provides the intellectual basis for the welfare-to-work policies introduced in many countries.

The basic message is in Unemployment: Macroeconomic Performance and the Labour Market. This was first published in 1991 and a second edition in 2005 shows how well the model predicts the development of unemployment in different countries since 1991.

On inequality, his work shows the key role of education in influencing the income of individuals and families. He has been a lifelong advocate of better education (including apprenticeship) for less academic youngsters.

Public life

In 1985 he founded the Employment Institute which has played a major role in pushing the ideas of welfare-to-work. He did the same as Chairman of the European Commission's Macroeconomic Policy Group during the 1980s. From 1991-1997 he was a part-time economic adviser to the Russian Government and from 1997 to 2001 a part-time consultant to the British government on welfare-to-work and vocational education.

In 2005 the British government accepted his proposals on psychological therapy and since then he has (as National Adviser) been heavily involved in implementing the government programme of Improving Access to Psychological Therapy (IAPT). In 2010, this was extended to cover children.

In 2000 he was made a member of the House of Lords.

 

 

Selected Writings:

Happiness

Happiness

Happiness : Lessons from a new science
Penguin, Second Edition, April 2011.

Download Annex

“Measuring Subjective Well-Being for Public Policy" (with P. Dolan and R. Metcalfe), Office for National Statistics, February 2011

“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, 2010

“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

“Well-being Measurement and Public Policy” in A. Krueger (ed) Measuring the Subjective Well-Being of Nations, National Accounts of Time Use and Well-Being, NBER Conference, Report, University of Chicago Press, 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

Good Childhood Report

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

 

“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

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

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

“Human satisfactions and public policy”, Economic Journal, December 1980.  Reprinted in Richard A Easterlin (ed), Happiness in Economic,  Edward Elgar, 2002.

 

Mental health

"Enhancing Recovery Rates in IAPT Services: Lessons from analysis of the Year One data" (with A Gyani, R Shafran, and D Clark), IAPT website, 2011

“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

"Improving Tier 2-3 CAMHS", July 2009

“Cost-benefit analysis of psychological therapy”,  (with D. Clark, M. Knapp and G. Mayraz), National Institute Economic Review, No 202, October 2007.

"The Teaching of Values", Ashby Lecture, University of Cambridge, 2 May 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

“Mental health: Britain’s biggest social problem?", Paper presented at the No.10 Strategy Unit Seminar on Mental Health, 20th January 2005

"Mental Health: the Choice of Therapy for All", CentrePiece, December 2005 This article is an edited version of the inaugural Sainsbury Centre for Mental Health Lecture delivered on 12 September 2005.

 

Unemployment, skills and inequality

Combarring Unemployment

Combatting Unemployment, with Stephen Nickell, IZA Prize Volume,
Oxford University Press, May 2011

 

 

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

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

Unemployment: Macroeconomic Performance and the Labour Market, (with S. Nickell and R. Jackman) Oxford University Press, 1991; 2nd ed., 2005

“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

"Full Employment Is Not Just a Dream" (with S. Nickell), CentrePiece, February 2003
See also Jaap de Koning, Richard Layard, Steve Nickell and Niels Westergaard-Nielsen, "Policies for Full Employment", Department for Works and Pensions Report, March 2004

"Britain's Record on Skills",(with S.  McIntosh and A. Vignoles), Paper No' CEEDP0023, May 2002

"Welfare to Work and the New Deal" World Economics, Vol. 1, No 2 April-June 2000

“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

“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

Tackling Inequality, Macmillan, 1999

Tackling Unemployment, Macmillan, 1999

"European versus US Unemployment: Different Responses to Increased Demand for skill?", (with R. Jackman, M. Manacorda, and B. Petrongolo), Paper No' CEPDP0349, June 1997

"Combatting Unemployment: Is Flexibility Enough?", (with R. Jackman and S. Nickell), Paper No' CEPDP0293, March 1996

"Lifelong Learning" (with P. Robinson and H. Steedman), Paper No' CEPOP09, December 1995

Britain’s Training Deficit, Avebury, (edited with K. Mayhew and G. Owen) 1994.

Stopping Unemployment, The Employment Institute, (with J. Philpott) September 1991.

The Performance of the British Economy, (edited with R. Dornbusch), Oxford University Press, 1987. 

Handbook of Labor Economics, (edited with O. Ashenfelter), North‑Holland, 1987.   Fifth reprint 2003 (Vol 1).

How to Beat Unemployment, Oxford University Press, 1986. 

The Causes of Poverty, (with D. Piachaud and M. Stewart) Background Paper No. 5, Royal Commission on the Distribution of Income and Wealth, HMSO, 1978. 

 

Other

The Coming Russian Boom, (with J. Parker), The Free Press, 1996.

East-West Migration: The Alternatives, M.I.T. Press, 1992. (with O. Blanchard, R. Dornbusch and P. Krugman).

Macroeconomics.  A Text for Russia, Wiley, Moscow, 1994 (in Russian).

Cost-Benefit Analysis, (Harmondsworth: Penguin) with long introduction, 1972. Second Edition: Cambridge University Press, 1994. (edited with S. Glaister)

Microeconomic Theory, McGraw‑Hill (U.S.), 1978.  (with A.A. Walters). Reissued as McGraw Hill International Edition, 1987.      

 

See also Publications on LSE Research Online book

CEP Publications:
Copyright © CEP & LSE 2003 - 2013  |  LSE, Houghton Street, London WC2A 2AE  |  Tel: +44(0)20 7955 7673  |  Email: cep.info@lse.ac.uk  |   Site updated 20 May 2013
Use of this website is subject to, and implies acceptance of, its Terms of use (including Copyright and intellectual property, Privacy and data protection, and Accessibility).
The London School of Economics and Political Science is a School of the University of London. It is a charity and is incorporated in England as a company limited by guarantee under the Companies Acts (Reg no. 70527).The registered office address of the School is: The London School of Economics and Political Science, Houghton Street, London WC2A 2AE, UK; Tel: +44 (0)20 7405 7686