scholarly journals Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness: Measuring What Matters

2016 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Laura Musikanski ◽  
Carl Polley
Keyword(s):  
Public Policy ◽  
United Kingdom ◽  
New Zealand ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Subjective Well Being ◽  
Pursuit Of Happiness ◽  
Policy Initiatives ◽  
The Third ◽  
The United Kingdom ◽  
Economic Paradigm

This essay focuses on ways in which the governments of Bhutan and the United Kingdom are measuring subjective well-being as well as on how other governments including Norway, Spain, China, Canada, and New Zealand, are exploring the development of subjective well-being indicators. It concludes with recommended actions to aid in the formation of a consistent and comparable subjective well-being indicator for use by governments globally. The third in a series for which the purpose is to provide information to grassroots activists to foster the happiness movement for a new economic paradigm, this essay builds on the previous essays, Happiness in Public Policy and Measuring Happiness to Guide Public Policy: A Survey of Instruments and Policy Initiatives.

The Covid-19 lockdown in the United Kingdom and subjective well-being: Have the self-employed suffered more due to hours and income reductions?

2021 ◽  
pp. 026624262098676 ◽  
Author(s):  
Wei Yue ◽  
Marc Cowling
Keyword(s):  
United Kingdom ◽  
Rare Events ◽  
Well Being ◽  
The Self ◽  
Subjective Well Being ◽  
Data Set ◽  
The United Kingdom ◽  
Hours Of Work ◽  
Period Data ◽  
The Uk

It is well documented that the self-employed experience higher levels of happiness than waged employees even when their incomes are lower. Given the UK government’s asymmetric treatment of waged workers and the self-employed, we use a unique Covid-19 period data set which covers the months leading up to the March lockdown and the months just after to assess three aspects of the Covid-19 crisis on the self-employed: hours of work reductions, the associated income reductions and the effects of both on subjective well-being. Our findings show the large and disproportionate reductions in hours and income for the self-employed directly contributed to a deterioration in their levels of subjective well-being compared to waged workers. It appears that their resilience was broken when faced with the reality of dealing with rare events, particularly when the UK welfare support response was asymmetric and favouring waged employees.

scholarly journals Measuring Happiness to Guide Public Policy Making: A Survey of Instruments and Policy Initiatives

2015 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Laura Musikanski
Keyword(s):  
Public Policy ◽  
Policy Making ◽  
International Institutions ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Public Policy Making ◽  
Subjective Indicators ◽  
Policy Initiatives ◽  
Economic Paradigm ◽  
Definition Of

This author examines subjective indicators of well-being as they relate to the happiness movement, a global effort to create a new economic paradigm. The essay focuses on the prominent international institutions that are developing happiness metrics as well as agencies exploring the use of happiness data for crafting supportive public policy. A definition of happiness metrics, based on international institutions, identifies the primary questions that compose perceived happiness and how this data can be used.

Southeast Asian Defense Treaty Organization

1957 ◽  
Vol 11 (3) ◽  
pp. 571-572
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
United Kingdom ◽  
New Zealand ◽  
Annual Meeting ◽  
The Philippines ◽  
Southeast Asian ◽  
Economic Resources ◽  
The Third ◽  
The United Kingdom ◽  
Asian Member

The third annual meeting of the Council of the Southeast Asian Treaty Organization (SEATO) was held in Canberra, Australia March 11–13, 1957, under the chairmanship of R. G. Casey, Minister for External Affairs of Australia. The meeting was attended by representatives of Australia, France, New Zealand, Pakistan, the Philippines, Thailand, the United Kingdom, and United States. In the communiqué issued at the close of the session, the Council stated that its plans to consolidate and enhance its previous progress provided for 1) maintenance of the defensive capacity of the treaty members to deal effectively with armed aggression, 2) extension of the program to detect, appraise, expose and combat subversion directed from without, and 3) development of the economic resources of the treaty members, particularly the Asian member states, by measures inside and outside SEATO.

Wellbeing economics in public policy: A distinctive Australasian contribution?

2019 ◽  
Vol 30 (4) ◽  
pp. 478-497 ◽  
Author(s):  
Paul Dalziel
Keyword(s):  
Public Policy ◽  
New Zealand ◽  
Cultural Capital ◽  
Human Actions ◽  
Jel Codes ◽  
Policy Initiatives ◽  
The Third ◽  
Indigenous Worldviews ◽  
Further Development

The ‘Wellbeing Budget’ presented to the New Zealand Parliament in 2019 was widely described as a world-first. This article explores the possibility of a distinctive Australasian contribution to our understanding of wellbeing economics in public policy. The introduction section presents an analytical wellbeing framework showing how human actions draw on services provided by the country’s capital stocks to create and sustain personal and communal wellbeing. The second section chronicles some landmark policy initiatives in Australia and New Zealand for understanding and monitoring wellbeing, culminating in the Wellbeing Budget. The third section highlights four areas for further development: (1) the role of family wellbeing in intergenerational wellbeing, (2) the role of cultural capital in providing foundations for future wellbeing, (3) the role of Indigenous worldviews in enriching understandings of wellbeing and (4) the role of market enterprise in expanding capabilities for wellbeing. These are all areas where Australasian researchers have demonstrated expertise. JEL Codes: I31, I38, B54

scholarly journals Mind the “Happiness” Gap: The Relationship Between Cohabitation, Marriage, and Subjective Well-being in the United Kingdom, Australia, Germany, and Norway

Demography ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 56 (4) ◽  
pp. 1219-1246 ◽  
Author(s):  
Brienna Perelli-Harris ◽  
Stefanie Hoherz ◽  
Trude Lappegård ◽  
Ann Evans
Keyword(s):  
United Kingdom ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Subjective Well Being ◽  
The United Kingdom ◽  
The Relationship

scholarly journals Reflections on the Introduction of Official Measures of Subjective Well-Being in the United Kingdom

2021 ◽  
pp. 51-69
Author(s):  
Paul V. Allin
Keyword(s):  
United Kingdom ◽  
Public Opinion ◽  
Media Coverage ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Objective Measures ◽  
Subjective Well Being ◽  
Official Statistics ◽  
National Statistics ◽  
The United Kingdom ◽  
Thinking Differently

From 2011 onward, surveys by the UK’s national statistics office have included four subjective well-being questions. This is specifically so that summary statistics about subjective well-being inform a broader assessment of national well-being along with other, largely objective measures, as well as anticipating policy needs. This chapter reviews how and why the four questions were chosen. The author focuses on their “practical utility,” a concept fundamental to all official statistics. He reports some progress in policy take-up of well-being statistics, though little media coverage, and a lack of evidence about whether people are thinking differently about their goals and their well-being based on well-being measures. Official statisticians must engage more with politics, policy, businesses, academia, and public opinion, thereby helping to stimulate demand for their outputs, including well-being measures. The author also questions how national well-being measures can be determined nationally while benefitting from international cooperation and standards.

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