Episode 2: Richard Layard

Professor Lord Richard Layard, co-director of CEP’s wellbeing programme, discusses the papers which have inspired him to put wellbeing at the centre of his economic thinking and why happiness should be the key factor in designing public policy. The papers discussed in this episode are: Easterlin, R. (1974) 'Does economic growth improve the human lot? Some empirical evidence' in P.A. David and M.W. Reder (eds) Nations and Households in Economic Growth. Academic Press, 89-125. Layard, R. (1980) ‘Human satisfactions and public policy’ The Economic Journal, 90(360), 737-750. Layard, R. (2005) Happiness: Lessons from a new science. Penguin.