Introduction to the economics of growth, sustainability and wellbeing
This course is intended to give participants an introduction to the concepts and evidence from wellbeing economics most useful in a policy context. Wellbeing economics supports better public policy to improve human lives. It explicitly recognises the canvas of human concerns beyond income and material consumption, and draws on knowledge from other disciplines such as psychology and philosophy. Yet it also applies and builds on well-established tools in welfare economics, such as constrained dynamic optimisa
Description
This course provides participants with a basic understanding of the origins and applications of growth, sustainability and wellbeing economics. We discuss the connections among the three areas using frameworks such as the capabilities perspective of Amartya Sen and Martha Nussbaum, endogenous growth theory, comprehensive wealth and sustainability, and evidence on subjective wellbeing. Applied tools such as the Living Standards Framework will be used as examples. We discuss the links between economics and related disciplines such as psychology and philosophy. We look at the growth of the field as a response to the increasing complexity of contemporary policy problems, and to the strengths and limitations of market-mediated income and consumption as underpinnings for wellbeing across generations. Such approaches are being increasingly applied in policy contexts in a range of countries around the world. The course will include discussion of the methodological gaps and weaknesses that remain to be filled.