tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1089082204850170942.post8920043046929425514..comments2024-03-07T19:07:01.980+11:00Comments on Freedom and Flourishing: Should governments collect subjective well-being data?Winton Bateshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07383561940886657594noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1089082204850170942.post-63670542086258390222009-06-12T15:30:47.511+10:002009-06-12T15:30:47.511+10:00Juliet:
Thanks for drawing my attention to the Na...Juliet: <br />Thanks for drawing my attention to the National Accounts of Well-being report. I found it most interesting. There is much I like about the approach it adopts, even though some of proposed “policy levers for change” in Box 5 (p 46) are too paternalistic for my liking. It was nice to see recognition of individual autonomy as a core requirement of well-being (p 47). <br />It was particularly interesting to see the similarity and differences in country scores for different components of the personal well-being index.<br />In thinking about how well various measures of subjective well-being might correspond to the economist’s concept of utility, it seems important to consider the trade-offs that people may make between their current personal well-being and other things that may be important to them e.g. their future income security. I will probably write more about this.Winton Bateshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07383561940886657594noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1089082204850170942.post-28876482402630536842009-06-12T01:12:32.210+10:002009-06-12T01:12:32.210+10:00The National Accounts of Well-being report which w...The <i>National Accounts of Well-being</i> report which we at <b>nef</b> (the new economics foundation) published earlier this year argues that systematic subjective well-being indicators would definitely add reliable and valuable information to what is currently collected by governments. It would measure an outcome - a life which is going well - which is inherently desirable, rather than a collection of essentially arbitrary outcomes which government has chosen to focus on. By collecting information on various components of well-being, such as meaning and engagement, issues such as trade-off with life satisfaction can be examined in detail. And crucially, giving prominence to these sorts of measures will allow societies to prioritise the lived experience of their members, rather than being relentlessly focused on economic growth, which has been shown to do little to improve well-being in developed countries.<br /><br />See www.nationalaccountsofwellbeing.org for more.Juliet Michaelsonhttp://www.nationalaccountsofwellbeing.orgnoreply@blogger.com