The Origins of Happiness
The Science of Well-Being over the Life Course
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A new perspective on life satisfaction and well-being over the life course
What makes people happy? The Origins of Happiness seeks to revolutionize how we think about human priorities and to promote public policy changes that are based on what really matters to people. Drawing on a range of evidence using large-scale data from various countries, the authors consider the key factors that affect human well-being, including income, education, employment, family conflict, health, childcare, and crime. The Origins of Happiness offers a groundbreaking new vision for how we might become more healthy, happy, and whole.
Richard Layard
Richard Layard is Co-Director of the Wellbeing Programme at the Centre for Economic Performance, and Emeritus Professor of Economics at the LSE. He is one of the world's leading experts on the economics of wellbeing. He has written six books on the subject including Happiness: Lessons from a New Science (2005; translated into 20 languages). Until 2000 he worked on unemployment, co-writing the leading book Unemployment (1991). He is a member of the Hose of Lords and an active campaigner for better policy-making.
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