Richard Layard

• London School of Economics and Political Science

Information on both wages and job quality is needed in order to understand the occupational dispersion of wellbeing. We analyse subjective wellbeing in a large UK sample to construct a measure of ‘overall reward’, the sum of wages and the value of job quality, in 90 different occupations. If only wages are included, then labour market inequality is...

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 expe...

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 expe...

The way our parents behave affects our wellbeing. Affection and firm boundaries have positive effects on our wellbeing. However, individual resilience plays a role too - many children survive severe abuse without major changes to their wellbeing. The mental health of parents (and especially mothers) has a significant impact on the wellbeing of thei...

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 expe...

Despite the importance of work for wellbeing, working turns out to be one of the least enjoyable activities we engage in on an hour-to-hour basis. To evaluate the effects of work on wellbeing researchers often rely on experience sampling methods. Social aspects of work (such as positive working relationships (particularly with managers), work/life...

This concludes our brief initial overview of the main causes of high and low wellbeing – and of the huge variation in wellbeing in the world. All the findings are cross-sectional, with time series and experiments left to later chapters. The findings of this chapter provide the framework for the rest of Part III of the book – starting with personal...

Mental and physical illness are intimately related. Both cause pain in the same area of the brain and reduce our ability to function normally. Some 20% of the population would be diagnosed as having a mental illness. But in most advanced countries under a third of them are in treatment (and most of those are only receiving medication, not psycholog...

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 expe...

This chapter sets out the elements of multiple regression analysis. If properly designed this enables us to estimate the effect of each separate factor upon wellbeing. To find the explanatory power of the different factors, we run the equation using standardised variables, that is, the original variables minus their mean and divided by their standa...

If wellbeing is to be at the heart of policy-making, some major changes would be needed. Every organisation would try in whatever way it could to generate the largest number of WELLBYs (appropriately discounted). Wherever there is a budget constraint, the available funds would go to those policies which generate the most WELLBYS (discounted) per do...

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 expe...

Social connections are vital to our wellbeing, not only for practical reasons but also for mutual affection, a sense of being needed, and a source of identity. This applies not only to connections within the family and the workplace but also within the community. More community networks raise the average wellbeing in a society. Such networks depend...

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 expe...

If you were not you but about to be born, where would you choose to be born? This book argues that the best society is the one where people feel best about their lives – where they have the highest ’subjective wellbeing’. It shows how wellbeing can be measured and then explained. This introductory chapter summarises some key findings about the caus...

Causal studies on the relationship between wellbeing and political participation have produced mixed results. Happier voters are found to be more engaged in some contexts but not others. In the Arab world, low wellbeing was a strong precedent and predictor of future uprisings. This relationship appears to be slightly weaker in Western countries. Ov...

Being exposed to nature (trees, plants and green space) has demonstrable positive effects on our physical health, our behaviour (including crime) and our wellbeing. Quantifying this can improve the design of our lifestyle and our cities. For instance, people with longer commutes experience less wellbeing. However house price differences underestima...

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 expe...

The wellbeing approach offers a clear solution to the basic questions in political philosophy and moral philosophy. Crucially, it provides a single overarching goal. Coherent decisions require an overarching goal, for if you have multiple goals, they may point in different directions. Aristotle recognised this but modern ’utilitarianism’ dates back...

Our thoughts affect our feelings and our feelings affect our thoughts. But the way to break into this cycle is through changing our thoughts. Experimental evidence shows the effectiveness of many ways of doing this. Cognitive behaviour therapy (CBT) teaches us to observe our automatic negative thoughts and make space for more positive thinking. Pos...

Wellbeing varies hugely in the human population. About 80% of this variance is within countries and about 20% is between countries. Between 1980 and 2007 average wellbeing rose in more countries than where it fell. But since 2008 wellbeing has fallen in roughly the same number of countries as where it has risen. Since 2006/8 there has been a large...

The unemployed are generally significantly and substantially less satisfied with their lives than the employed. This relationship tends to be stronger in high-income countries where there are sharper differences between employment and unemployment. In studies that look at within-person changes over time, unemployment typically reduces wellbeing by...

In the traditional economic model, people have well-defined preferences and pursue them consistently and selfishly. According to this model wellbeing is efficiently promoted by the free market except for various problems, the biggest of which is ’externality’. This is the way in which people affect other people without their agreement. However ther...

Wellbeing is mainly studied by asking people questions. The most common question is about life-satisfaction and replies satisfy standard tests of reliability and validity. Using the Gallup World Poll, the World Happiness Report finds that on a scale of 0–10, 1 in 6 of the world’s population score 3 of below and 1 in 6 score 8 or above – a huge ineq...

Both government conduct and government quality are significantly related to wellbeing levels around the world. Democratic quality appears to be more important for wellbeing in high-income countries. This could suggest that residents of low-income countries are more affected by their governments provision of basic goods and services, while residents...

The Easterlin paradox states that (1) in a given context richer people are on average happier than poorer people, but (2) over time greater national income per head does not cause greater national happiness. Statement (1) is certainly true. As a benchmark, a unit increase in log income raises wellbeing by 0.3 points (out of 10). The share of the wi...

Self-reported wellbeing is correlated with activity in a number of brain areas. The sensation of pain is most clearly experienced in the anterior cingulate cortex which registers both physical pain and social pain. The mind affects the body and vice versa. Wellbeing predicts mortality as well as smoking does. Prolonged psychological stress leads to...

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 expe...

Governments in liberal democracies pursue social welfare, but in many different ways. The wellbeing approach instead asks: Why not focus directly on increasing measured human happiness? Why not try to improve people’s overall quality of life, as it is subjectively seen by citizens themselves? The radical implications of this stance include shifting...

COVID-19 has infected millions of people and upended the lives of most humans on the planet. Researchers from across the psychological sciences have sought to document and investigate the impact of COVID-19 in myriad ways, causing an explosion of research that is broad in scope, varied in methods, and challenging to consolidate. Because policy and...

Despite a wealth of research on its correlates, relatively little is known about how to effectively raise wellbeing in local communities by means of intervention. Can we teach people to live happier lives, cost-effectively and at scale? We conducted a randomised controlled trial of a scalable social-psychological intervention rooted in self-determi...

Despite a wealth of research on its correlates, relatively little is known about how to effectively raise wellbeing in local communities by means of intervention. Can we teach people to live happier lives, cost-effectively and at scale? We conducted a randomised controlled trial of a scalable social-psychological intervention rooted in self-determi...

Since the first confirmed case in Wuhan, China on December 31, 2019, the novel coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2) has spread quickly, infecting 165 million people as of May 2021. Since this first detection, research has indicated that people contracting the virus may suffer neurological and mental disorders and deficits, in addition to the respiratory and ot...

A happy choice: a response to the responses - PAUL FRIJTERS, ANDREW E. CLARK, CHRISTIAN KREKEL, RICHARD LAYARD

In this article, we lay out the basic case for wellbeing as the goal of government. We briefly review the history of this idea, which goes back to the ancient Greeks and was the acknowledged ideal of the Enlightenment. We then discuss possible measures on which a wellbeing orientation could be based, emphasizing the importance of acknowledging the...

This chapter takes a look at how working parents can affect their children, and how. Evidence from the Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children (ALSPAC) shows that, other things held constant (including income), mother's work has no marked effect, good or bad, on the emotional health of her children. However, the chapter goes further by expl...

This has been a long project involving many members of the Wellbeing Programme at the Centre for Economic Performance in the London School of Economics. We are extremely grateful to Nele Warrinnier and Warn Nuarpear Lekfuangfu, who were key members in its earlier phase. We are also grateful to Stephen Machin, Andrew Steptoe, and Camille Lassale for...

This chapter examines the character of the parents and how they relate to their child. It considers the emotional health, behavior, and intellectual development of children and the impacts the parents' behavior and mental illness have on these factors. Though the chapter is not comprehensive, it does offer a few conclusions for policy consideration...

This chapter considers work and unemployment. Full-time workers spend at least a quarter of their waking life at work. But on average, they enjoy that time less than anything else they do. The worst time of all is when they are with their boss. Even so, people hate it even more if they are unemployed. This is not just because they lose money from b...

This chapter summarizes the main findings on what determines happiness. These are expressed in numerical form, because there is no way to compare the importance of different things except by using numbers. The chapter's measure of happiness throughout is life-satisfaction, measured on a scale of 0 to 10. That is, like all other estimates in this bo...

This chapter investigates the impact of the different schools and teachers in the Avon area on the outcomes of the children they taught. It begins by investigating the role of the whole school in considering what difference it makes which school a child goes to. Here, primary and secondary schools have major effects on the emotional well-being of t...

This chapter demonstrates that policy analysis should be based on happiness as the measure of benefit (except where traditional methods actually work). It argues that this should be generally applied throughout the public services and by nongovernment organizations (NGOs). The chapter offers four key proposals. The first is that the goal of governm...

This chapter argues that both physical and mental health are hugely important for an enjoyable life. Illnesses of either type can be devastating. But the chapter asserts that mental illness explains more of the misery in society than physical illness does, and more than either poverty or unemployment. It also explains more of the variation in life-...

This chapter discusses the effects of family conflict on children. Break-ups and separations on an increased scale is a relatively modern phenomenon—one of the more important changes over the last forty years. The chapter considers what such circumstances mean for the children caught in the middle of conflict. The Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents...

This chapter turns to the Gallup World Poll to investigate the impacts of social norms and institutions upon a person's life-satisfaction. Social norms and institutions are public goods that affect all individuals living in a society. As such, their effects can only be studied by comparing life-satisfaction across societies, rather than across indi...

This chapter considers how our early experience determines our emotional well-being as a child and how it affects the other key dimensions of our development as children. To answer these questions, the chapter turns to the Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children (ALSPAC). This survey attempted to cover all children born in and around Bristo...

This chapter shows that, while happiness is not the same with income, income still affects happiness. Indeed, the effect of income on happiness is one of the best-measured effects in all happiness research. It presents the evidence to this effect. Again, the chapter begins with evidence from the British Cohort Study, mostly cross-sectional. It then...

Available at http://cep.lse.ac.uk/origins/onlinematerial.pdf • Descriptive Statistics (e.g., Table D1) Means, SDs, and Correlations • Full Tables —numbered as in text • Additional Tables and Figures (e.g., Table A1.1) • Annexes 1 Interpreting the statistics 2 Income and well-being. Others’ findings. 3a Education and well-being. Others’ findings....

This chapter examines the sense of satisfaction and fulfillment most people gain from close personal relationships. Life-course data provide important evidence on this, although the chapter notes that for children, the question of close personal relationships is more nuanced. And as the chapter shows, human relationships at the most intimate level...

This introductory chapter briefly describes the ways in which happiness and well-being can be laid out in quantitative terms. It argues that this endeavor is crucial both for individuals as well as for policy makers. Here, the chapter focuses on individual well-being over individual lifespan. In adulthood that is measured by life-satisfaction, and...

This chapter investigates a set of “direct” benefits to education. Education provides an interesting and potentially enjoyable experience for students; it educates people as citizens and voters; it generates higher tax payments; it even reduces crime. And it provides for the individuals concerned a personal resource, interesting work, and additiona...

What makes people happy? This book seeks to revolutionize how we think about human priorities and to promote public policy changes that are based on what really matters to people. Drawing on a range of evidence using large-scale data from various countries, the authors consider the key factors that affect human well-being, including income, educati...

This chapter estimates the five sets of relationships discussed in the previous chapter, using two surveys. It first estimates relationships the first four sets, using the British Cohort Study data (BCS) on children born in 1970. Then the chapter estimates the fifth relationship, using data on the British cohort born mainly in the county of Avon in...

A dedicated tax is the only way that we can be sure the government is reflecting public wishes, says Richard Layard, but John Appleby argues it would not protect funding from economic uncertainty

Studies of deprivation usually ignore mental illness. This paper uses household panel data from the USA, Australia, Britain and Germany to broaden the analysis. We ask first how many of those in the lowest levels of life-satisfaction suffer from unemployment, poverty, physical ill health, and mental illness. The largest proportion suffers from ment...

In a typical country, one in five people suffers from a mental illness, the great majority from depression or crippling anxiety. Mental illness accounts for half of all illness up to age 45 in rich countries, making it the most prevalent disease among working-age people; it also accounts for close to half of disability benefits in many countries. M...

To tackle the huge problem of mental illness, England has launched a large programme of psychological therapy, which is being watched worldwide. The authors argue that it costs nothing, due to savings on welfare benefits and physical healthcare. The article is based on the recent book Thrive: The power of evidence-based psychological therapies (Lay...

Studies of deprivation usually ignore mental illness. This paper uses household panel data from the USA, Australia, Britain and Germany to broaden the analysis. We ask first how many of those in the lowest levels of life-satisfaction suffer from unemployment, poverty, physical ill health, and mental illness. The largest proportion suffer from menta...

Policy makers who care about well-being need a recursive model of how adult life-satisfaction is predicted by childhood influences, acting both directly and (indirectly) through adult circumstances. We estimate such a model using the British Cohort Study (1970). We show that the most powerful childhood predictor of adult life-satisfaction is the ch...

They championed evidence-based therapies for depression and anxiety and showed that these can transform people's lives. Economist Richard Layard and psychologist David Clark tell Liz Else why their mental health mission has only just begun

The English Improving Access to Psychological Therapies (IAPT) initiative aims to make evidence-based psychological therapies for depression and anxiety disorder more widely available in the National Health Service (NHS). 32 IAPT services based on a stepped care model were established in the first year of the programme. We report on the reliable re...

This lecture argues that mental health is a major factor of production. It is the biggest single influence on life satisfaction, with mental health eight years earlier a more powerful explanatory factor than current income. Mental health also affects earnings and educational success. But, most strikingly, it affects employment and physical health....

Over the 70 years since his report we have made huge strides on all of these fronts, except at times unemployment. But there is still widespread misery in our society – and what surveys we have of happiness and misery suggest it has changed little since then. So what did Beveridge miss? Like so many of his contemporaries, he overlooked the human fa...

This volume, prepared for the UN High-Level Meeting on Happiness and Well-Being, sponsored by the Government of Bhutan, April 2, 2012, presents and analyzes measures of subjective well-being for up to 150 countries, reviews the scientific support for these measures, and presents new results explaining differences in happiness among individuals and...

http://issuu.com/earthinstitute/docs/world-happiness-report

In the latest of CEP’s ‘big ideas’ series, Richard Layard outlines the development of the Centre’s research on what makes people happy and how society might best be organised to promote happiness.

I want to argue that mental health is a key dimension of all our lives and at every age. Yet when the present welfare state was being designed this was far from people’s minds. In his famous report, LSE director William Beveridge identified 5 problems of society as the 5 great giants which needed to be slain. They were poverty, unemployment, poor e...

Why is unemployment higher in some countries than others? Why does it fluctuate between decades? Why are some people at greater risk than others? Layard and Nickell have worked on these issues for thirty years. Their famous model, first published in 1986, is now used throughout the world. It asserts that unemployment must be high enough to reduce...

No abstract available.

The main proposals in this paper have a highly focussed aim: to prevent the continuation in Britain of an increasingly depressed group of under-skilled workers. The main intention is to ensure that all 16-19 year olds and as many adults as possible achieve at least Level 2 qualifications. (i) For 16-19 we should require traineeships for all young p...

What is progress, and how should we measure the well-being of a population? The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development has held two major conferences on the subject, and last year, President Sarkozy of France established a distinguished commission to report on the same questions ( 1 ). This major debate reflects the fact that higher...

Recently the UK Government announced an unprecedented, large-scale initiative for Improving Access to Psychological Therapies (IAPT) for depression and anxiety disorders. Prior to this development, the Department of Health established two pilot projects that aimed to collect valuable information to inform the national roll-out. Doncaster and Newham...

Do other peoples’ incomes reduce the happiness which people in advanced countries experience from any given income? And does this help to explain why in the U.S., Germany and some other advanced countries, happiness has been constant for many decades? The answer to both questions is ‘Yes’. We provide 4 main pieces of evidence. 1) In the U.S. Genera...

Average unemployment (over the cycle) is determined by the supply-side features of the labour market. The most important issue is the way in which unemployed people are treated. That is what our research showed in the 1980s. The 1990s confirmed our predictions. Around 1990 most countries had a boom, but high vacancies were accompanied by ongoing hi...