Well-Being Library

A collection of documents, compiled by the ALICE RAP scientists, on well-being research and policy initiatives. If you would like to add a document to this library, please write with the reference or document itself to fmbooth@clinic.ub.es.

Documents

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Compendium of OECD well-being indicators Compendium of OECD well-being indicators

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Date added: 05/10/2012
Date modified: 05/14/2012
Filesize: 1.39 MB
Downloads: 3313

Author: OECD

In recent years, concerns have emerged regarding the fact that macro-economic statistics did not portray the right image of what ordinary people perceived about the state of their own lives. Addressing these concerns is crucial, not just for the credibility and accountability of public policies, but for the very functioning of our democracies. The OECD has been leading the international reflection on this challenge through various projects and initiatives.
The publication of a set of well-being indicators for developed and selected emerging economies is an important new contribution to this debate.

In recent years, concerns have emerged regarding the fact that macro-economic statistics did not portray the right image of what ordinary people perceived about the state of their own lives. Addressing these concerns is crucial, not just for the credibility and accountability of public policies, but for the very functioning of our democracies.

The OECD has been leading the international reflection on this challenge through various projects1 and initiatives. In 2004, it held its first World Forum on „Statistics, Knowledge and Policies‟ in Palermo. Two more Forums took place in Istanbul in 2007, which led to the launch of the OECD-hosted Global Project on Measuring the Progress of Societies, and in Busan in 2009. Thanks to these and other efforts undertaken in the international community, measuring well-being and progress is now at the forefront of national and international statistical and political agendas (Box 1). This agenda is not relevant for developed countries only as improving people‟s well-being is a goal for every government in the world.

1 OECD, 2001; Boarini et al., 2006.

The OECD is preparing an important new contribution to this debate, with the publication of a set of well-being indicators for developed and selected emerging economies.

A well-being manifesto for a flourishing society A well-being manifesto for a flourishing society

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Date added: 05/02/2012
Date modified: 06/14/2012
Filesize: 2.79 MB
Downloads: 2988

Authors: Hetan Shah and Nic Marks (nef)

This well-being manifesto seeks to answer the question “what would politics look like if promoting people’s well-being was one of government’s main aims?” - by the nef (new economics foundation), UK.

Initial investigation into subjective well-being from the opinions survey Initial investigation into subjective well-being from the opinions survey

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Date added: 05/10/2012
Date modified: 05/10/2012
Filesize: 315.43 kB
Downloads: 2818

Author: Office for National Statistics (ONS)

To measure national well-being it is important not just to rely on traditional indicators of economic progress, but also to collect information from people themselves about how they assess their own well-being. Individual or subjective well-being estimates are an important addition to existing official statistics and this research report presents experimental statistics from the ONS Opinions Survey (OPN) looking at the levels of subjective well-being in the British population during April to August 2011.

Report by the Comission on the mesurement of economic perfomance and social progress Report by the Comission on the mesurement of economic perfomance and social progress

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Date added: 05/02/2012
Date modified: 06/14/2012
Filesize: 3.16 MB
Downloads: 2771

Authors: Joseph E. Stiglitz, Amartya Sen and Jean-Paul Fitoussi (European Comission)

The report distinguishes between an assessment of current well-being and an assessment of sustainability, whether this can last over time. Current well-being has to do with both economic resources, such as income, and with non-economic aspects of peoples’ life (what they do and what they can do, how they feel, and the natural environment they live in). Whether these levels of well-being can be sustained over time depends on whether stocks of capital that matter for our lives (natural, physical, human, social) are passed on to future generations. To organise its work, the Commission organized itself into three working groups, focusing respectively on: Classical GDP issues, Quality of life and Sustainability. The following main messages and recommendations arise from the report.