Can “happiness data” help evaluate economic policies?

Robert MacCulloch

No 290577, Motu Working Papers from Motu Economic and Public Policy Research

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: Consumer/Household; Economics (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 16
Date: 2016-02
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:ags:motuwp:290577

DOI: 10.22004/ag.econ.290577

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