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Taking a wellbeing years approach to policy choice

Author

Listed:
  • Jan-Emmanuel de Neve

    (University of Oxford)

  • Andrew E. Clark

    (PSE - Paris School of Economics - UP1 - Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne - ENS-PSL - École normale supérieure - Paris - PSL - Université Paris Sciences et Lettres - EHESS - École des hautes études en sciences sociales - ENPC - École des Ponts ParisTech - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique - INRAE - Institut National de Recherche pour l’Agriculture, l’Alimentation et l’Environnement, PJSE - Paris Jourdan Sciences Economiques - UP1 - Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne - ENS-PSL - École normale supérieure - Paris - PSL - Université Paris Sciences et Lettres - EHESS - École des hautes études en sciences sociales - ENPC - École des Ponts ParisTech - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique - INRAE - Institut National de Recherche pour l’Agriculture, l’Alimentation et l’Environnement, CEPR - Center for Economic Policy Research, LSE - London School of Economics and Political Science)

  • Christian Krekel

    (CEPR - Center for Economic Policy Research, LSE - London School of Economics and Political Science)

  • Richard Layard

    (CEPR - Center for Economic Policy Research, LSE - London School of Economics and Political Science)

  • Gus O’donnell

    (CEPR - Center for Economic Policy Research, LSE - London School of Economics and Political Science)

Abstract

Every day, policy makers must decide whether a policy is desirable. They do so by examining its impact on a range of outcomes. But the problem is how to aggregate these disparate outcomes. For example, as covid-19 cases rise again, some lockdown measures are gradually being reintroduced across the UK. These policy choices will lead to outcomes that are good (such as fewer deaths from covid-19, less commuting, better air quality) and some that are bad (unemployment, income losses, loneliness, domestic abuse). How can policy makers aggregate these disparate effects in order to arrive at an overall assessment? To do so requires a "common currency" with which to measure all the effects. The currency we propose is the change in years of human wellbeing resulting from the policy.

Suggested Citation

  • Jan-Emmanuel de Neve & Andrew E. Clark & Christian Krekel & Richard Layard & Gus O’donnell, 2020. "Taking a wellbeing years approach to policy choice," Post-Print halshs-02973078, HAL.
    • Handle: RePEc:hal:journl:halshs-02973078
    DOI: 10.1136/bmj.m3853
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    Cited by:

    1. Adler, Matthew D. & Dolan, Paul & Henwood, Amanda & Kavetsos, Georgios, 2022. "“Better the devil you know”: Are stated preferences over health and happiness determined by how healthy and happy people are?," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 303(C).
    2. Matthew D Eisenberg & Alexander McCourt & Elizabeth A Stuart & Lainie Rutkow & Kayla N Tormohlen & Michael I Fingerhood & Luis Quintero & Sarah A White & Emma Elizabeth McGinty, 2021. "Studying how state health services delivery policies can mitigate the effects of disasters on drug addiction treatment and overdose: Protocol for a mixed-methods study," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 16(12), pages 1-16, December.
    3. Skarda, Ieva & Asaria, Miqdad & Cookson, Richard, 2022. "Evaluating childhood policy impacts on lifetime health, wellbeing and inequality: Lifecourse distributional economic evaluation," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 302(C).
    4. Strong, Peter & Shenvi, Aditi & Yu, Xuewen & Papamichail, K. Nadia & Wynn, Henry P. & Smith, Jim Q., 2023. "Building a Bayesian decision support system for evaluating COVID-19 countermeasure strategies," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 113632, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    5. Thoma, Johanna, 2021. "Weighing the costs and benefits of public policy: on the dangers of single metric accounting," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 112689, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.

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