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The science and policy of wellbeing

What produces a happy society and a happy life?

The discipline of wellbeing science seeks to answer this question using empirical evidence about what makes lives more worth living. It aims to transform our ability to base our decisions on the outcomes that matter most, namely the wellbeing of us all including future generations.

Join Professor Lord (Richard) Layard and Professor Jan-Emmanuel De Neve, co-authors of a recent book “Wellbeing: Science and Policy”, as they discuss with Professor Sir Charles Godfray, Director of the Oxford Martin School, how wellbeing can be measured, what causes it and how it can be improved.

To register to attend, either in person in Oxford or online, please visit oxfordmartin.ox.ac.uk/events/wellbeing.

Wellbeing: Science and Policy

Richard Layard and Jan-Emmanuel De Neve

What produces a happy society and a happy life? Thanks to the new science of wellbeing, we can now answer this question using state-of-the-art empirical evidence. This transforms our ability to base our decisions on the outcomes that matter most, namely the wellbeing of us all including future generations. Written by two of the world’s leading experts on the economics of wellbeing, this book shows how wellbeing can be measured, what causes it and how it can be improved. Its findings are profoundly relevant to all social sciences, including psychology, economics, politics, behavioural science and sociology. A field-defining text on a new science that aims to span the whole of human life, this will be an invaluable resource for undergraduate and graduate students, policy-makers and employers, who can apply its insights in their professional and private lives. This title is also available as Open Access on Cambridge Core.

Lord Prof. Richard Layard

Centre for Economic Performance, LSE

The Finnish Secret to Happiness? Knowing When You Have Enough

The New York Times

Frank Martela, a psychology researcher at Aalto University, agreed with Ms. Paasimaki’s assessment. “The fact that Finland has been ‘the happiest country on earth’ for six years in a row could start building pressure on people,” he wrote in an email. “If we Finns are all so happy, why am I not happy?”

He continued, “In that sense, dropping to be the second-happiest country could be good for the long-term happiness of Finland.”

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These are the world’s 10 happiest countries in 2023 (and most of them are in Europe)

Euronews

The enduring effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, coupled with the war in Ukraine, and worldwide inflation made 2022 a year of global crises.

But the human resolve to be happy has been “remarkably resilient,” says the 2023 World Happiness Report, which recorded global satisfaction averages as high as those in the pre-pandemic years.

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Book Launch | Wellbeing: Science and Policy

Professor Jan-Emmanuel De Neve (Oxford) and Lord Professor Richard Layard (LSE) discuss the launch of their new textbook, Wellbeing: Science and Policy, at a special event held at the London School of Economics and Political Science.

Wellbeing: Science and Policy seeks to provide not only a grounding in the ever-expanding field of wellbeing science, but also practical advice for researchers, policymakers and practitioners alike.

Its findings are profoundly relevant to all social sciences, including psychology, economics, politics, behavioural science and sociology. Illustrations are provided by visual artist David Shrigley.

• Wellbeing: Science and Policy on the Cambridge University Press website
• Wellbeing: Science and Policy on Amazon

“The best book I have read in a long time – a fount of knowledge and an inspiring call to action.” – Daniel Kahneman, Nobel Prize winner

Wellbeing: science and policy

Make wellbeing central to public policy

Financial Times

“So how can we move to a more balanced set of priorities? First, there has to be the evidence base. This is coming on well. The first textbook on wellbeing science has just been published. But, second, there has to be more public pressure. That is why 12 major multinational companies have joined with academics (including myself) to launch a World Wellbeing Movement, with very simple objectives.”

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Finland Named World’s Happiest Country for Fifth Year Running

The Guardian

Finland has been named the world’s happiest country for the fifth year in a row, in an annual UN-sponsored index that ranked Afghanistan as the unhappiest, closely followed by Lebanon.

The latest list was completed before the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

Bulgaria, Romania and Serbia recorded the biggest boosts in wellbeing. The largest falls in the world happiness table, released on Friday, came in Lebanon, Venezuela and Afghanistan. Lebanon, which is facing economic meltdown, fell to second from last on the index of 146 countries, just below Zimbabwe. War-scarred Afghanistan, already bottom of the table last year, saw its humanitarian crisis deepen since the Taliban returned to power last August following the pull-out of US-led troops.

“This [index] presents a stark reminder of the material and immaterial damage that war does to its many victims,” co-author Jan-Emmanuel De Neve said.

The world happiness report, now in its 10th year, is based on people’s own assessment of their happiness, as well as economic and social data. It assigns a happiness score on a scale of zero to 10, based on an average of data over three years.

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Green Book Supplementary Guidance: Wellbeing


Gov.uk

Supplementary guidance to the Green Book covering the consideration of wellbeing as part of the Green Book methodology.

This policy paper draws on a number of recent publications by the Wellbeing Research Centre, including our paper on the wellbeing years approach to policy choice in the British Medical Journal, and the World Happiness Report.

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What Makes a Happy Country?

New York Times

When governments around the world introduced coronavirus restrictions requiring people to stand two meters apart, jokes in Finland started circulating: “Why can’t we stick to the usual four meters?”

Finns embrace depictions of themselves as melancholic and reserved — a people who mastered social distancing long before the pandemic. A popular local saying goes, “Happiness will always end in tears.”

But for four consecutive years, Finland has been named the happiest country in the world by the United Nations Sustainable Development Solutions Network, which publishes an annual report evaluating the happiness of people around the world.

The latest report, published last month, has led some Finns to ask: Really?

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