WEllbeing Economics

Wellbeing Economics is the research, study and measurement of a Wellbeing Economy. As with traditional economics, it is a tool available to policymakers to design the economy and other societal structures. Wellbeing Economics is focues on improvinf human and planetary wellbeing.

An economy coordinates and organises people's activities to achieve the goals of society. The wellbeing economy is designed to improve people's wellbeing. Health systems in England, for example, employ over 1.5 million people to deliver the means for better health. Over 700,000 people work in the arts and culture sector, which delivers the means for entertainment. Around 1.3 million parents in the UK stay at home to look after their children's health, wellbeing and future development.

Wellbeing Economic Theory describes how economies and societies are structured to generate the means for people's wellbeing.

• Doughnut Economics

• The Inclusivity Project's Wellbeing Economic Model
  
  

Wellbeing economic models place sustainable human wellbeing at the centre of policy and practice. It requires us to understand of what human wellbeing actually means, in all its many dimensions, and how best to measure it.

Traditional measures of wellbeing have relied on indirect or proxy measures such as income, legal infrastructure, or exposure to environmental risks. More direct measures include health outcomes, life expectancy, and subjective experiences of happiness or safety.  Many indices combine these approaches.

There is a growing movement to adopt more integrated understanding of wellbeing that reflects how deeply our activities integrate and come together to generate the means of wellbeing, and the ecological impact of those activities. These models recognise that human wellbeing cannot be separated from the health of social, economic, and natural systems. 

We have listed below some examples of the many ways we understand and measure human wellbeing within our planetary limitations.

Global Models of Wellbeing

• Harvard Human Flourishing Index

• Human Development Index (HDI)

• Gross National Happiness (GNH) – Bhutan

• OECD Better Life Index

• Canadian Index of Wellbeing (CIW)

• World Happiness Report

• Social Progress Index (Skoll Foundation)

• South Australia State of Wellbeing Project

• Engage Nova Scotia (Canada)

UK Wellbeing Measurement Initiatives

• What  Works Wellbeing Initiative

• Carnegie Trust: Improving Collective Wellbeing 

• Office for National Statistics: Measuring What Matters Framework

• Happiness Pluse: Thriving Places Index

• Legatum Institute: Commission on Wellbeing and Policy

• Children’s Society:  Good Childhood Index

• The University of Warwich: Edinburgh Mental Wellbeing Scale

• The Flourish Project: ESF Framework
  
  

Values- and Psychology-Based Frameworks

• Barrett Values Centre: Seven Levels of Consciousness

• Martin Selgman: PERMA Model

• Action for Happiness Framework

Indigenous Wellbeing Concepts

• Buen Vivir (Ecuador, Bolivia): Living well in harmony with nature.

• Ubuntu (Southern Africa): “I am because we are”.

• Ikigai (Japan): Life purpose and personal 

Wellbeing Economies generate the means for people to experience wellbeing. Each of us converts the means for wellbeing to its experience. Wellbeing Psychology helps us to understand the "Wellbeing Capacity", the way in which we boost or weaken the means available to us into wellbeing experiences. It also identifies a variety of mechanisms that help us understand how to make the most of our wellbeing opportunities and to avoid our beliefs or practices that undermine our wellbeing.

• Inclusivity Project's Wellbeing Model