Wellbeing : science and policy / Richard Layard, London School of Economics and Political Science, Jan-Emmanuel De Neve, University of Oxford ; illustrated by David Shrigley.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Layard, Richard, 1934- author.

De Neve, Jan-Emmanuel, author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Happiness.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (viii, 341 pages) : digital, PDF file(s).

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

Cambridge, United Kingdom ; New York, NY : Cambridge University Press, 2023.

Summary:

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.

Contents:

Cover

Half-title

Title page

Copyright information

Dedication

Contents

Introduction and Summary

Measurement

This Book

Our Behaviour

Our Thoughts

Our Bodies and Our Genes

The Inequality of Wellbeing

Families and Schooling

Mental and Physical Health

Unemployment

The Quality of Work

Income

Community

The Physical Environment and the Climate of the Planet

Government

How to Select Good Policies

Methodology

Learning Objectives

Part I The Case for Wellbeing

1 What Subjective Wellbeing Is and Why It Matters

Subjective Wellbeing as the Overarching Good

How Should We Measure It?

Evaluative measures: The life satisfaction approach

Hedonic measures based on 'affect'

Comparison of evaluative and hedonic measures

Eudaimonic measures

Can we believe self-reports?

Correlation with brain activity

Correlation with third-party reports

Predictive power

Explicability

The reporting scale

What causes wellbeing?

What Use Is This Knowledge?

Wellbeing helps us achieve other valuable objectives

Human needs

How people interact with their environment

What kind of a subject is wellbeing science?

Conclusions

Questions for discussion

Further Reading

2 Wellbeing as the Goal for Society

Some History

Greece and Rome

The eighteenth-century Enlightenment

Behaviourism

Taking feelings seriously again

The Definition of Social Welfare

Wellbeing over time and WELLBYs

Sustainability and climate change

Length of life and the birth rate

How egalitarian should we be?

Criticisms

Consequentialism and rights: The fat man

The experience machine

Adaptation

Selfishness is encouraged

The nanny state

Social justice

Part II Human Nature and Wellbeing.

3 How Our Behaviour Affects Our Wellbeing

Individual Responsibility versus Collective Action

Human Decision-Making

Addiction and self-control

Unforeseen adaptation/habituation

Framing

Loss-aversion and the endowment effect

Unselfishness

Externalities

The trustworthiness of others

The sources of our social norms

Social comparisons

4 How Our Thoughts Affect Our Wellbeing

The Experimental Method

Cognitive-Behaviour Therapy (CBT)

The cognitive revolution

The behavioural revolution in clinical psychology

Positive Psychology

Meditation and Mindfulness

5 Our Bodies, Our Genes and Our Wellbeing

Feelings and the Brain

How the Mind Affects the Body

How the Body Can Affect the Mind

How Our Genes Affect Our Wellbeing

Evidence from twins

Evidence from adopted children

Heritability

Genes and environment

Evidence from DNA

Personality and Wellbeing

Part III How Our Experience Affects Our Wellbeing

6 The Inequality of Wellbeing: Some Basic Facts

The Level and Inequality of Wellbeing in the World

Changes Over Time

Hedonic Measures of Wellbeing

Differences Between Groups

Men and women

Age

Ethnic differences

The Wellbeing of Children

Life Expectancy and WELLBYs

7 Tools to Explain Wellbeing

Estimating the Effect of a Variable

Omitted variables

Reverse causality

Measurement error

Mediating variables

Standard errors and significance

The Explanatory Power of a Variable

Binary dependent variables

Effect size of a binary independent variable

Experiments

Selection bias

Summary.

Further Reading

8 Explaining Wellbeing: A First Exploration

Wellbeing and the Life Cycle

Personal Determinants of Adult Wellbeing

Childhood Predictors of Individual Wellbeing

The Effects of Social Norms and Institutions

9 Family, Schooling and Social Media

The Effect of Parents

The Effect of Schools

Can we teach happiness?

Bullying and school discipline

Social Media

Family Conflict

10 Health and Healthcare

How Much Mental Illness?

The Effects of Mental Illness

On wellbeing and suicide

On physical illness

On the economy

The Treatment of Mental Illness

Economic benefits of treatment

The shortfall in mental healthcare

Effective mental health services

Physical Illness - Pain and Shortened Lives

Health Policy-Making

11 Unemployment

Introduction

How Important Is Work?

Scarring

Why Is It So Painful To Be Unemployed?

Spillovers on the Community

The family

The community

Policy Implications

Redundancy

Active labour market policies

12 The Quality of Work

Are We Satisfied With Our Jobs?

Are We Happy While We Work?

What Drives Employee Wellbeing?

Pay

Working relationships

Hours and flexible working

Interesting work

Purpose

Unions

Does Wellbeing Matter for Performance?

13 Income

Differences Between Individuals

The diminishing marginal utility of income

The size of the effect of income on wellbeing

Problems

Results

Differences Between Countries

Time-Series for Countries.

Long-term growth and wellbeing

The Role of Income Comparisons and Adaptation

Policy Implications of Income Comparisons

Economic Fluctuations

14 Community

Social Connections

Community Networks

Volunteering

Trust

Inequality

Crime

Ethnic Diversity and Immigration

Culture, Sport and Religion

15 The Physical Environment and the Planet

How Nature Affects Us

The Built Environment and Urban Design

Commuting time

Housing quality

Air pollution and noise

Climate Change

The discount rate

How big are the costs?

Part IV Government and Wellbeing

16 How Government Affects Wellbeing

How Do Political Institutions, Processes, and Politics Shape Wellbeing?

Government conduct and democratic quality

The size of government

Political orientation

17 How Wellbeing Affects Voting

Does Wellbeing Shape Political Behaviour and Voter Preferences?

Voter preferences

Populism

18 Cost-Effectiveness and Policy Choice

The Goal

Cost-Effectiveness Analysis

Relation to traditional cost-benefit analysis

Taxes and regulations

Five major issues

Developing New Policies

Who Is Doing What?

Our Thanks

List of Annexes

References

Index.

Notes:

Title from publisher's bibliographic system (viewed on 12 May 2023).

ISBN:

1-009-29893-3

1-009-29891-7

1-009-29895-X

OCLC:

1490383391