Can “happiness data” help evaluate economic policies?

Robert MacCulloch

IZA World of Labor, 2016, No 226, 226

Abstract: Imagine a government confronted with a controversial policy question, like whether it should cut the level of unemployment benefits. Will social welfare rise as a result? Will some groups be winners and other groups be losers? Will the welfare gap between the employed and unemployed increase? “Happiness data” offer a new way to make these kinds of evaluations. These data allow us to track the well-being of the whole population, and also sub-groups like the employed and unemployed people, and correlate the results with relevant policy changes.

Keywords: well-being; happiness data; unemployment benefit policy (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: H53 I31 I38 J65 J68 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2016
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