national accounts of well-being edinburgh 26 th march 2009 nic marks founder of centre for...

National Accounts of Well-being

Edinburgh26th March 2009

Nic MarksFounder of centre for well-beingnef (the new economics foundation)

Who are nef?The New Economics Foundation

• Founded 1986 when G7 summit in UK

• An independent think (& do) tank

• Inspired by 3 principles1. Ecological Sustainability

2. Social Justice

3. People’s Well-being

• centre for well-being formed 2005


History of National Accounts

nef’s National Accounts of Well-being

The challenge of the 21st Century

An opportunity

History of National Accounts

The Great Depression. Simon Kuznets, ‘improving welfare’, Ernst Wagemann, ‘decreasing unemployment’

2nd World War - the militarisation process created an almost exclusive emphasis on production. (Keynes)

Institutionalisation – UN System on National Accounting (1953). Currently 1993 standard being used most widely.

Kennedy Quote - 1968

‘The Gross National Product counts air pollution and cigarette advertising, and ambulances to clear our highways of carnage. It counts special locks for our doors and the jails for the people who break them… It counts the destruction of the redwood and the loss of our natural wonder in chaotic sprawl… Yet the gross national product does not allow for the health of our children, the quality of their education, or the joy of their play. It does not include the beauty of our poetry or the strength of our marriages, the intelligence of our public debate or the integrity of our public officials… it measures everything, in short, except that which makes life worthwhile.’Robert Kennedy, Kansas, 18th March 1968

Policy/Political ContextNorth America:

“National Differences in Well-being”; Daniel Kahneman, Ed Diener and John Helliwell

OECD:“Measuring the Progress of Societies”

European Council:“Beyond GDP” conference – November 2007

Bhutan:“Gross National Happiness”

French Stiglitz Commission Focus on “Quality of Life”

‘There is a huge distance between standard measures of important socio economic variables like growth, inflation, inequalities etc…and widespread perceptions…Our statistical apparatus, which may have served us well in a not too distant past, is in need of serious revisions.’ Amartya Sen, Joseph Stiglitz and Jean-Paul Fitoussi

Preliminary Results

Progress or Regress? "Life is getting worse in my country"

0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90% 100%

NorwayDenmark

FinlandEstoniaSweden

SpainCyprus

SwitzerlandAll Europe

United KingdomBelgium

SloveniaSlovakiaGermany

PolandBulgaria

PortugalFrance

Disagree

Neutral

Agree

26% 50%

French Stiglitz Commission Three main areas:

1. Classical GDP problems: distribution, valuing public services, wealth cf income, indebtedness, non-market household production & security.

2. Sustainable Development: current benefits of environment, net adjusted savings, weak/strong sustainability, international issues

French Stiglitz Commission 3. Quality of Life:

•Focus on the present

•Experiences of individuals

•Distinction between means & ends

•Aspects of QoL: hedonic, evaluative and capabilities (ends)

•Determinants of QoL (means?)

•Cross cutting issues: inequalities and measurement issues

UK Policy Timeline2000: Local Government Act - Power of Well-being2002: Prime Minister’s Strategy Unit2004: Layard's Happiness book & nef’s manifesto2005: Sustainable Development Strategy2006: nef’s Happy Planet Index2007: Office for National Statistics ‘Societal Well-

being’ paper2008: Audit Commission: Place-based Well-being

Dept of Science Foresight Progamme on Mental Capital & Well-being

• ESS is a cross-national time-series survey, conducted every 2 years

• Round 3 2006/2007 – 23 countries

Winner of the 2005 Descartes Prize Europe’s top award for science

European Social Survey

Well-being Module

50 questions on Personal and Social Well-being

Questionnaire Design Team:Felicia Huppert, Cambridge University, UK

Andrew Clark, Delta, Paris, France

Nic Marks, nef, London, UK

Johannes Siegrist, Dusseldorf Uni, Germany

Alois Stutzer, Zurich University, Switzerland

Joar Vittersø, Tromsø University, Norway

Structure of Accounts

Overall Well-being

Personal Well-being Social Well-being

Personal Well-being

Personal well-being

Emotional well-being

Satisfying life

Good functioning

Resilience & self

esteemVitality

Social Well-being

Social well-being

Supportive relationships Trust & Belongingness

Challenges in Creating Indexes

1. Questions with different response codes

2. Skewed distributions in responses

3. Creating recognisably meaningful numbers

Different Response Codes

All things considered, how satisfied are you with

your life as a whole nowadays? Extremely

Dissatisfied 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

Extremely Satisfied

How often in the last week was your sleep restless?

None or almost none of the time

Some of the time

Most of the time

All or almost all of the time

1 2 3 4

Different response codes

Yes No

Anyone to discuss intimate and personal matters with

0

20

40

60

80

100

Per

cen

t

Cases weighted by Design weight

Extremely dissatisfied

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 Extremely satisfied

How satisfied with life as a whole

0

5

10

15

20

25

30

Per

cen

t

Cases weighted by Design weight

Standardisation

Histo g ra m o f ZWB I

E S S 3 wo rki n g fi l e (wi th T ra n sfo rm a ti o n s).sta 2 8 4 v*3 4 9 1 1 c

ZW B I = 3 3 0 0 9 *0 .5 *n o rm a l (x, -0 .0 6 7 1 , 0 .4 8 4 7 )

-3 .5 -3 .0 -2 .5 -2 .0 -1 .5 -1 .0 -0 .5 0 .0 0 .5 1 .0 1 .5 2 .0

ZW B I

0

2 0 0 0

4 0 0 0

6 0 0 0

8 0 0 0

1 0 0 0 0

1 2 0 0 0

1 4 0 0 0

No

of

ob

s

Skewed distributions

Histo g ra m o f ZWB I


ZW B I = 3 3 0 0 9 *0 .5 *n o rm a l (x, -0 .0 6 7 1 , 0 .4 8 4 7 )

-3 .5 -3 .0 -2 .5 -2 .0 -1 .5 -1 .0 -0 .5 0 .0 0 .5 1 .0 1 .5 2 .0

ZW B I

0

2 0 0 0

4 0 0 0

6 0 0 0

8 0 0 0

1 0 0 0 0

1 2 0 0 0

1 4 0 0 0

No

of

ob

s

Normalisation

012345

6789

10

-3 -2 -1 0 1

z-scores

tran

sfo

rmed

sco

res

Normalisation

Histo g ra m o f T WB I


T WB I = 3 3 0 0 9 *1 0 *n o rm a l (x, 4 9 .5 8 8 4 , 1 2 .9 8 2 5 )

-1 0 0 1 0 2 0 3 0 4 0 5 0 6 0 7 0 8 0 9 0 1 0 0 1 1 0

T WB I

0

1 0 0 0

2 0 0 0

3 0 0 0

4 0 0 0

5 0 0 0

6 0 0 0

7 0 0 0

8 0 0 0

9 0 0 0

1 0 0 0 0

No

of

ob

s

Meaningful Scales

Histo g ra m o f T WB I


T WB I = 3 3 0 0 9 *1 0 *n o rm a l (x, 4 9 .5 8 8 4 , 1 2 .9 8 2 5 )

-1 0 0 1 0 2 0 3 0 4 0 5 0 6 0 7 0 8 0 9 0 1 0 0 1 1 0

T WB I

0

1 0 0 0

2 0 0 0

3 0 0 0

4 0 0 0

5 0 0 0

6 0 0 0

7 0 0 0

8 0 0 0

9 0 0 0

1 0 0 0 0

No

of

ob

s

50 10

Challenges in Creating Indexes

Questions with different response codes - STANDARDISE

Skewed distributions - NORMALISE

Creating recognisably meaningful numbers – TRANSFORM

Personal & Social Well-being across Europe

Denmark

Sw itz er land

Norw ay

Ireland

A us tr ia

Sw eden

FinlandNether lands

Spain

Cy prusBelgium

Germany

UK

Slov eniaFranc ePoland

Es tonia

Portugal

Hungary

Slov akia

Bulgar ia

Ukraine

4.0 4.2 4.4 4.6 4.8 5.0 5.2 5.4 5.6 5.8 6.0

Pers onal

4.0

4.2

4.4

4.6

4.8

5.0

5.2

5.4

5.6

5.8

6.0

Soc

ial

Denmark

Sw itz er land

Norw ay

Ireland

A us tr ia

Sw eden

FinlandNether lands

Spain

Cy prusBelgium

Germany

UK

Slov eniaFranc ePoland

Es tonia

Portugal

Hungary

Slov akia

Bulgar ia

Ukraine

By Region

4.0

4.5

5.0

5.5

6.0

Personal Social

Central & Eastern

UK & Ireland

Western

Southern

Scandanavia

Rank Orders – top 12

Country PersPer

Rank SocialSoc

Rank WBIWBI

RankLife Sat

LS Rank

Denmark 5.96 1 5.89 1 5.94 1 8.5 1

Switzerland 5.80 2 5.52 4 5.71 2 8.1 2

Norway 5.61 4 5.77 2 5.66 3 7.8 5

Ireland 5.50 6 5.37 6 5.46 4 7.6 8

Austria 5.61 3 5.13 10 5.45 5 7.7 6

Sweden 5.45 7 5.44 5 5.44 6 7.9 4

Finland 5.52 5 5.26 9 5.43 7 8.1 3

Netherlands 5.33 8 5.30 8 5.32 8 7.6 7

Spain 5.12 12 5.58 3 5.26 9 7.5 9

Cyprus 5.30 9 4.93 12 5.18 10 7.5 10

Belgium 5.16 10 4.92 13 5.08 11 7.4 11

Germany 5.14 11 4.88 17 5.05 12 6.9 14

UK 5.07 13 4.90 15 5.01 13 7.2 12

Rank Orders – Bottom 10

Country PersPer

Rank SocialSoc

Rank WBIWBI

Rank Life Sat

LS Rank

Slovenia 5.04 14 4.78 20 4.95 14 7.1 13

France 4.97 15 4.80 19 4.91 15 6.4 17

Poland 4.79 16 4.83 18 4.80 16 6.8 15

Estonia 4.71 17 4.90 16 4.77 17 6.6 16

Portugal 4.52 18 5.31 7 4.76 18 5.6 19

Hungary 4.41 20 5.10 11 4.63 19 5.5 20

Slovakia 4.50 19 4.64 21 4.55 20 6.2 18

Bulgaria 4.30 21 4.91 14 4.50 21 5.0 21

Ukraine 4.17 22 4.61 22 4.32 22 4.6 22

A High Scoring Nation

Denmark

3.0

4.0

5.0

6.0

7.0

Emotional well-being - positive feelings

Emotional well-being - absence of negative

feelings

Satisfying life

Vitality

Resilience & self-esteem

Positive functioning

Supportive relationships

Trust & belonging

A Low Scoring Nation

Ukraine

3.0

4.0

5.0

6.0

7.0


- positive feelings


- absence of

negative feelings

Satisfying life

Vitality

Resilience & self -

esteem


Supportive

relationships

Trust & belonging

Age group: under 25

3.04.05.06.07.0



feelings

Satisfying life

Vitality




Trust & belonging

Age group: 75 plus

3.0

4.0

5.0

6.0

7.0



feelings

Satisfying life

Vitality




Trust & belongingYoung People - UK

Older People - UK

Within a Nation

How does Scotland do?

3.0

4.0

5.0

6.0

7.0Emotional: +ve feelings

Emotional: absence -ve feelings

Satisfying life

Vitality




Trust & belonging

Mean Scotland England Wales Denmark

How might NAWB be used?

Looking backwards: Assess changes over time

Review and evaluate policy decisions

Draw comparisons (internationally)

Assess differences (between sub-populations)

Looking forwards: Identify areas of need or opportunity

Evaluate the potential impacts of policy proposals

Shape policy formation (content & delivery)

Inform targeting of new policy (sub-populations)

Potential benefits of NAWB

1. New way of directly assessing societal progress

2. Cross cutting approach to radically redesign the policy formation process

3. Better communication & engagement between national governments and the general public

Web-sitenot only a report …

but also a web-site…

www.nationalaccountsofwellbeing.org

Saturday 24th January 00.01 (GMT)

Four recent reports

Measuring Wellbeing in Policy; Sam Thompson, Nic Marks; Foresight & nef; Oct 08

Local Wellbeing – can we measure it? ; Nicola Steuer, Nic Marks; Young Foundation & nef; Sept 08

Five Ways to Wellbeing: the evidence; Jody Aked, Nic Marks; Foresight & nef; Oct 08

National Accounts of Well-being; Juliet Michaelson, Saamah Abdallah, Nicola Steuer, Sam Thompson and Nic Marks; nef; January 2009

Forthcoming:

Happy Planet Index; July 2009

Five Ways to Well-being“Develop a set of evidence based actions to

improve personal well-being”

Used Foresight’s five (draft) challenge reports:• Learning through Life• Mental Health• Well-being and Work• Learning Difficulties• Mental Capital through Life

Plus wider evidence from well-being literature

The TaskWe were asked to:

• Create Universal Appeal – eg different ages

• Target the Individual – not societal change or policy recommendation

We stressed:

• The need for variety – to overcome adaptation – not a sense of duty

Five ways to well-being

Connect…

With the people around you. With family, friends, colleagues and neighbours. At home, work, school or in your local community. Think of these as the cornerstones of your life and invest time in developing them. Building these connections will support and enrich you every day.


Be active…

Go for a walk or run. Step outside. Cycle. Play a game. Garden. Dance. Exercising makes you feel good. Most importantly, discover a physical activity you enjoy and that suits your level of mobility and fitness.


Take notice…

Be curious. Catch sight of the beautiful. Remark on the unusual. Notice the changing seasons. Savour the moment, whether you are walking to work, eating lunch or talking to friends. Be aware of the world around you and what you are feeling. Reflecting on your experiences will help you appreciate what matters to you.


Keep learning…

Try something new. Rediscover an old interest. Sign up for that course. Take on a different responsibility at work. Fix a bike. Learn to play an instrument or how to cook your favourite food. Set a challenge you will enjoy achieving. Learning new things will make you more confident as well as being fun.


Give…

Do something nice for a friend, or a stranger. Thank someone. Smile. Volunteer your time. Join a community group. Look out, as well as in. Seeing yourself, and your happiness, linked to the wider community can be incredibly rewarding and creates connections with the people around you.


www.nationalaccountsofwellbeing.org

Other reports downloadable from

www.neweconomics.org

Nic Marks: [email protected]

national accounts of well-being edinburgh 26 th march 2009 nic marks founder of centre for...

Documents

national differences

national accounting

new economics foundationwho

joseph stiglitz

quality of lifethere

countrysheet1no hope

robert kennedy

kennedy quote