Policy insights from the new science of well-being

Abstract

Nations routinely assess economic and social progress by measuring productivity, growth, longevity, and other objective indicators, and they then use the measures to guide policy. Yet the classic metrics do not directly assess an important goal of economic and social policies: improvements in people’s own evaluations of their well-being. Improving people’s feelings of well-being is important in its own right and can lead to enhanced personal and national economic prosperity. Today, governments at all levels—as well as businesses and community organizations—are increasingly complementing the standard measures with data from surveys that ask respondents about their day-to-day happiness, overall satisfaction with life, and sense of purpose. In this article, the authors describe many examples of how governments and other organizations are applying these measures of subjective well-being to inform and improve policy decisions.