OECD  [to 22 March 2014]
http://www.oecd.org/

REPORT | WELLBEING AND POLICY – 2014
OECD Guidelines on Measuring Subjective Well-being
Gus O’Donnell (Chair) and Angus Deaton, Martine Durand, David Halpern, Richard Layard
Commissioned by the Legatum Institute

PROLOGUE
The Legatum Institute established the Commission on Wellbeing and Policy to advance the policy debate on social wellbeing. This report aims to give policy makers a greater understanding of how wellbeing data can be used to improve public policy and advance prosperity.

The Legatum Institute is founded upon the principle that prosperity is a more capacious idea than can be expressed by a purely material measure such as Gross Domestic Product (GDP). Consequently the Institute’s own Prosperity Index is based on both wealth and wellbeing.

The Legatum Institute has sponsored the Commission on Wellbeing and Policy in order to help stimulate a debate as to if and how wellbeing analysis should influence government policy.

The Commission operated independently of the Legatum Institute and its views do not necessarily reflect those of the Institute.

CONCLUSION
This report reflects a widespread wish to reappraise the goals of our society. Organisations such as the EU and the OECD have for some years been discussing issues such as ‘What is progress?’ or ‘Beyond GDP’. We hope our report contributes to this debate, and shows how the lens of wellbeing can lead to concrete changes of direction. These changes include new ways of policy analysis and new policy priorities. Worldwide, people long for a more satisfying life. If leaders focus more on that objective, we could indeed have a better world.