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
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
John Helliwell, Richard Layard and Jeffrey D. Sachs
14 March 2018
Joan Costa-Font and Sarah Flèche
3 July 2017
Andrew E. Clark, Sarah Flèche, Richard Layard, Nattavudh Powdthavee and George Ward
7 June 2017
Jan-Emmanuel De Neve, John Helliwell, Haifang Huang, Richard Layard, Jeffrey D. Sachs and Shun Wang
20 March 2017
Andrew E. Clark, Sarah Flèche, Richard Layard, Nattavudh Powdthavee and George Ward
1 March 2017
Andrew E. Clark, Sarah Flèche, Richard Layard, Nattavudh Powdthavee and George Ward
27 January 2017
John Helliwell, Richard Layard and Jeffrey D. Sachs
20 March 2016
John Helliwell, Richard Layard and Jeffrey D. Sachs
23 April 2015
John Helliwell, Richard Layard and Jeffrey D. Sachs
9 September 2013
Paul Dolan and Georgios Kavetsos
31 July 2012
Alex Bryson and Pekka Ilmakunnas
16 February 2012