Taking a wellbeing years approach to policy choice

Jan-Emmanuel De Neve, Andrew Clark, Christian Krekel, Richard Layard and Gus O’donnell
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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

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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.

Date: 2020-10
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (5)

Published in BMJ - British Medical Journal, 2020, 371, ⟨10.1136/bmj.m3853⟩

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Working Paper: Taking a wellbeing years approach to policy choice (2020)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:hal:journl:halshs-02973078

DOI: 10.1136/bmj.m3853

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