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Modern Society and the Economics of Happiness: Warwick

Modern Society and the Economics of Happiness: WarwickPublic Lecture and Open Discussion
Registration is necessary 

Date: Wednesday 5th October, 5.30pm – 7.00pm
Venue: Arts Centre Conference Room, Warwick Arts Centre, University of Warwick
(This event will also take place in London on Thursday 6th October)

This event, organised by CAGE, brings together 3 of the leading thinkers in this field of Happiness Economics – Richard Easterlin, Andrew Oswald and Andrew Clark - to discuss some of the key questions for the modern world:

  • What are the appropriate goals for a modern society?
  • Should economic growth be a major priority?
  • How do we balance environmental concerns with the goal of higher GDP? What are the causes and policy implications of risky health behaviours?

The current discussion by policymakers about the need to measure human well-being not GDP can be traced back to the early ideas of these three thinkers.

All citizens, economists, sociologists, political scientists and policymakers should be interested in this debate.

The event is free and open to all, however space is limited, so please pre-register here.

There will be a drinks reception following the event in the Mead Gallery.

About the Speakers:

Richard Easterlin is Professor of Economics at the University of Southern California. He is an economist and demographer. He founded the economics of happiness. His ideas have overturned conventional post-war wisdom and have shaped the evolving move away from GDP measures. He is known for the Easterlin paradox where he argued that, contrary to what economics undergraduates have for decades been taught, the evidence suggests that happiness at a national level does not increase with wealth once basic needs are fulfilled

Andrew Oswald is Professor of Economics at the University of Warwick and Visiting Fellow at the IZA Institute in Bonn. He is an economist and quantitative social scientist. He has done research across the fields of economics, psychology, and epidemiology. He writes in newspapers as well as academic journals, warned of problems in the housing market years before the crash and of the West’s reliance on oil long before most noticed, and is credited with having begun a host of academic research literatures.

Andrew Clark is CNRS Research Professor at the Paris School of Economics. One of Europe’s most brilliant social scientists, Clark has done iconoclastic research across psychology, sociology and economics. His seminal article “Unhappiness and Unemployment” in the Economic Journal in 1994 (with Oswald) marked the beginning of the new trend to study happiness and human well-being. He has recently been writing on the topics of obesity, addiction, health, religion, voting, and other central issues of modern life