Curriculum Economics of Happiness and Wellbeing
Economics of Happiness and Wellbeing
What economists have learned about money, time, work, relationships and happiness, and how governments are starting to measure and budget for wellbeing.
- Does Money Buy Happiness? What research actually says about the link between income and happiness, and why the answer is more interesting than a simple yes or no. 📄 Read-aloud
- The Easterlin Paradox Why richer people are happier than poorer people at any one moment, yet whole countries may not get happier as they grow richer over time. 📄 Read-aloud
- How Economists Measure Wellbeing How life satisfaction surveys, the Cantril ladder, and daily experience methods turn something as personal as happiness into data economists can study. 📄 Read-aloud
- Bhutan and Gross National Happiness How the small Himalayan kingdom of Bhutan made happiness a formal national goal, how its index works, and what the experiment can and cannot teach other countries. 📄 Read-aloud
- Beyond GDP: Alternative Measures of Progress The main alternatives and supplements to GDP, from the Human Development Index to wellbeing dashboards, and the trade-offs between a single number and many indicators. 📄 Read-aloud
- Hedonic Adaptation: Why the Thrill Fades How people get used to both good and bad changes in their lives, why this creates a hedonic treadmill, and which experiences people adapt to only partly. 📄 Read-aloud
- Relative Income and Social Comparison Why people judge their income partly against others around them, how positional goods fuel spending races, and what this means for happiness and policy. 📄 Read-aloud
- Time Versus Money How the trade-off between earning more and having more free time affects wellbeing, and why buying time can sometimes be a better use of money than buying things. 📄 Read-aloud
- Experiences Versus Things Why spending on experiences often brings more lasting happiness than spending on material possessions, and the important exceptions to that rule. 📄 Read-aloud
- Unemployment and Wellbeing Why losing a job harms wellbeing far more than the lost income alone would predict, and what this means for how societies respond to unemployment. 📄 Read-aloud
- Commuting and Wellbeing: The Commuting Paradox What wellbeing research reveals about the daily journey to work, why people may underestimate its toll, and what cities and workers can do about it. 📄 Read-aloud
- The Economic Value of Social Connection Why relationships and community are among the strongest drivers of wellbeing, how economists try to put a value on them, and the economic costs of loneliness. 📄 Read-aloud
- The Economics of Mental Health How mental health conditions affect individuals and economies, why the treatment gap is so large, and why investing in care can pay for itself. 📄 Read-aloud
- Wellbeing Budgets: New Zealand and Beyond How New Zealand and other governments have tried to put wellbeing at the centre of budgets and policy, and the debate over whether it changes real outcomes. 📄 Read-aloud
- Nature and Wellbeing What research shows about how access to green spaces and nature affects health and happiness, and how economists value it. 📄 Read-aloud
- Sleep and Economic Performance How lack of sleep affects productivity, earnings and wellbeing, and what research has found about the economic costs of sleep loss. 📄 Read-aloud
- Loneliness as a Policy Issue Why governments have started treating loneliness as a public health and economic problem, and what policies aim to reduce it. 📄 Read-aloud
- Volunteering, Giving and Wellbeing What research shows about how helping others, through volunteering and giving, affects the helper's own happiness. 📄 Read-aloud
- Long Working Hours: Productive or Harmful? What evidence says about very long working hours, from productivity studies to health risks, and why the debate over 70-hour weeks struck a nerve in India. 📄 Read-aloud