Value for Money

A path-breaking method of making policy, with wellbeing as the objective, this book radically improves on traditional cost-benefit analysis.

A path-breaking method of making policy, with wellbeing at the objective. Using the new science of happiness, it radically improves on traditional cost-benefit analysis. It then applies these methods across the whole range of policies, showing the need for very new priorities. These methods have relevance worldwide.Governments spend billions on our behalf. But how should this money be spent? The purpose should be to increase the wellbeing of the people. So the best policies are those which produce the most wellbeing per pound spent. The new science of wellbeing now enables us to make these calculations. The authors of this book, led by Richard Layard, do just that across a whole range of government policies. And the results call for radical changes in priorities. This path-breaking book opens up a new approach to policy-making. It combines traditional economics with the new psychology of happiness. By valuing non-monetary outcomes it does what politicians have always wanted. Its methods have already been adopted by the UK Treasury and are relevant worldwide. If followed, they would produce a happier world. When people ask where do we go 'beyond GDP', this is the answer.