Measuring and Pursuing Wellbeing: the promise and the pitfalls

The UK’s Office for National Statistics has been measuring individual wellbeing for almost ten years. And in New Zealand, the Labour-led government delivered the first ever ‘wellbeing budget’ in May. But the pursuit of wellbeing raises ethical, conceptual, and practical challenges. In this seminar two experts from New Zealand join the ONS statistician in charge of measures of wellbeing, to discuss New Zealand's wellbeing budget, and the lessons for the UK.

Speakers:

• Glenn Everett, Head of Sustainability and Inequalities at ONS
• Andrew Aitken, Senior Economist at NIESR and Research Associate at ESCoE (Economic Statistics Centre of Excellence)
• Professor Jonathan Boston, Victoria University Wellington.

The seminar will be chaired by Lord O'Donnell, former British senior civil servant and economist, who between 2005 and 2011 served as the Cabinet Secretary.