From Welfare to Wellbeing State?

What produces a happy society and a happy life? More than 15 years ago, leading economist Richard Layard set a milestone with his book ‘Happiness’. Now he has followed up with a new major publication. In ‘Wellbeing: Science and Policy’ Layard and his co-author update the data on how to measure happiness. They propose how policymakers should spend their money if they want to increase wellbeing and why enhancing wellbeing outperforms the traditional cost-benefit focus of public policy.

We invited Lord Richard Layard to discuss his insights at our next New Economy Short Cut with Alessio Terzi from the EU Commission’s economic unit and Nicola Brandt from OECD Berlin.