Wellbeing Policy
One of the central aims of our research is that government policy should increasingly focus on wellbeing. The debate over whether or not happiness is a proper objective for society is a basic philosophical issue. Richard Layard's 2020 book Can We Be Happier? sets out the evidence for not only why but how we can create a happier society. The modern science of happiness enables us to measure people's quality of life in meaningful ways - reported happiness is well-correlated with objective measurements in the brain and with the kinds of factors, like unemployment, which we would expect to matter. The aim of such measurements is to provide a fuller picture of how society is doing by supplementing existing economic, social and environmental measures.
Much of our work has focused on this aim, together with issues regarding its implementation, in particular, the measurement of wellbeing. Work that is focused on policies for mental health is summarised in the Mental Health section.
Featured Work
Wellbeing Policy publications
David Frayman, Christian Krekel, Richard Layard, Sara MacLennan and Isaac Parkes
18 October 2024
Edited by Lara Aknin, Jan-Emmanuel De Neve, John Helliwell, Richard Layard, Jeffrey D. Sachs and Shun Wang
20 March 2024
Jan-Emmanuel De Neve and Richard Layard
19 September 2023
Jan-Emmanuel De Neve and Richard Layard
20 June 2023
Jan-Emmanuel De Neve and Richard Layard
27 March 2023
Edited by Lara Aknin, Jan-Emmanuel De Neve, John Helliwell, Richard Layard, Jeffrey D. Sachs and Shun Wang
20 March 2023
Richard Layard and Jan-Emmanuel De Neve
6 March 2023
David M. Clark and Adrian Whittington
16 January 2023
Lara Aknin, Jan-Emmanuel De Neve, John Helliwell, Richard Layard, Jeffrey D. Sachs and Shun Wang
18 March 2022
Lara Aknin, Jan-Emmanuel De Neve, John Helliwell, Richard Layard, Jeffrey D. Sachs and Shun Wang
21 March 2021
Jan-Emmanuel De Neve, John Helliwell, Richard Layard and Jeffrey D. Sachs
20 May 2020
Andrew E. Clark, Jan-Emmanuel De Neve, Daisy Fancourt, Nancy Hey, Christian Krekel, Richard Layard and Gus O'Donnell
24 April 2020
John Helliwell, Richard Layard and Jeffrey D. Sachs
10 February 2019