Dr Christian Krekel

This course is available on the MSc in Behavioural Science. This course is not available as an outside option.

This course aims to introduce students to the main concepts and tools of wellbeing for policy-making, with a focus on applicability in policies across all sectors (government, business, and NGOs). To achieve this aim, the course is based on ten lectures covering: 1) wellbeing frameworks; 2) empirical evidence on causes and consequences of wellbeing; 3) measurement and survey design; 4) data and methods; 5) policy analysis using preferences versus policy analysis using wellbeing; 6) wellbeing policy evaluation and appraisal; 7) interventions; 8) embedding wellbeing into policy; 9) paternalism; 10) wellbeing as the ultimate goal.

10 hours of lectures and 10 hours of seminars in the LT.

Books

• Adler, M. A., & Fleurbaey, M. (2016). The Oxford Handbook of Well-Being and Public Policy. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
• Clark, A. E., Flèche, S., Layard, R., Powdthavee, N., & Ward, G. (2018). The Origins of Happiness: The Science of Well-Being over the Life Course. Princeton, MA: Princeton University Press.
• Frijters, P., & Krekel, C. (2021). A Handbook for Wellbeing Policy-Making. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
• Layard, R. (2020). Can We Be Happier? Evidence and Ethics. London: Penguin.

Journal articles

• Benjamin, D. J., Heffetz, O., Kimball, M. S., & Rees-Jones, A. (2014). What Do You Think Would Make You Happier? What Do You Think You Would Choose? American Economic Review, 102(5), 2083-2110.
• Clark, A. E., Diener, E., Georgellis, Y., & Lucas, R. E. (2008). Lags And Leads in Life Satisfaction: a Test of the Baseline Hypothesis. Economic Journal, 118(529), F222-F243.
• Clark, A. E., Frijters, P., & Shields, M. A. (2008). Relative Income, Happiness, and Utility: An Explanation for the Easterlin Paradox and Other Puzzles. Journal of Economic Literature, 46(1), 95-144.
• De Neve, J.-E., & Oswald, A. J. (2012). Estimating the influence of life satisfaction and positive affect on later income using sibling fixed effects. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 109(49), 19953-19958.
• Dolan, P., & Kahneman, D. (2008). Interpretations Of Utility And Their Implications For The Valuation Of Health. Economic Journal, 118(525), 215-234.
• Dolan, P., Kavetsos, G., Krekel, C., Mavridis, D., Metcalfe, R., Senik, C., Szymanski, S., & Ziebarth, N. R. (2019). Quantifying the intangible impact of the Olympics using subjective well-being data. Journal of Public Economics, 177, 104043.
• Dolan, P., & Metcalfe, R. (2012). Measuring Subjective Wellbeing: Recommendations on Measures for use by National Governments. Journal of Social Policy, 41(2), 409-427.
• Kahneman, D., Wakker, P. P., & Sarin, R. (1997). Back to Bentham? Explorations of Experienced Utility. Quarterly Journal of Economics, 112(2), 375-406.
• Lindqvist, E., Östling, R., & Cesarini, D. (2020). Long-Run Effects of Lottery Wealth on Psychological Well-Being. Review of Economic Studies, 87(6), 2703-2726.
• Odermatt, R., & Stutzer, A. (2019). (Mis-)Predicted Subjective Well-Being Following Life Events. Journal of the European Economic Association, 17(1), 245-283.
• Oswald, A. J., Proto, E., & Sgroi, D. (2015). Happiness and Productivity. Journal of Labor Economics, 33(4), 789-822.
• Oswald, A. J., & Wu, S. (2010). Objective Confirmation of Subjective Measures of Human Well-Being: Evidence from the U.S.A. Science, 327(5965), 576-579.
• We encourage students to read Volume 4, Special Issue 2, “On Happiness Being the Goal of Government” in Behavioural Public Policy, July 2020.

Dissertation (100%, 10000 words) post-summer term.

You are required to write a 10,000 word dissertation (replacing the essay and presentation). You are expected to attend the course teaching on the half-unit that you chose to write your dissertation on.

Some departments have produced short videos to introduce their courses. Please refer to the course selection videos index page for further information.