Measuring wellbeing: great idea, but what’s the use?

PSA Conference 2015 PanelPAUL ALLIN, CStat, FRSA

Visiting Professor, Department of Mathematics,

Imperial College London

Overview

• Many initiatives to measure wellbeing and progress by more than just economic statistics

• New politics (or economics)? eg ‘responsible’ or ‘inclusive’ capitalism and replacements for MDGs

• Current wave (stimulated by 2010 Stiglitz et al Report) is not new idea (eg Robert Kennedy)

• Work in progress on new measures (eg one or several headline measures?)

• Good measurement necessary but not sufficient - measures need to be used in policy, business and in public debate

• Runners and riders - national and local government ministers and officials, businesses, NGOs, the media, individuals and households.

 

The issue

• Requirement for measures of national wellbeing and progress wider than GDP, including as prompt for different policy path (eg Beinhocker & Hanauer, 2014)

• Debate about the aims of economic policy morphs into one about indicators (eg Anderson, 1991)

• New requirement for measures of personal wellbeing to reformulate policy choices, decisions and evaluations (eg O’Donnell et al, 2014)

No shortage of existing official statistics

According to UN Fundamental Principles for Official Statistics (1. Relevance, impartiality and equal access):

Official statistics provide an indispensable element in the information system of a democratic society, serving the government, the economy and the public with data about the economic, demographic, social and environmental situation. To this end, official statistics that meet the test of practical utility are to be compiled and made available on an impartial basis by official statistical agencies to honour citizens' entitlement to public information.

http://unstats.un.org/unsd/methods/statorg/FP-English.htm

Countless initiatives around the world

“Mismeasuring our Lives” (Stiglitz et al, 2010)

“GDP and Beyond” (European Commission, 2009)

OECD Better Life Index

Allin and Hand (2014) list around 200 examples - from the African Child Policy Forum reports on wellbeing through to the Yarra Ranges community indicators.

Including the UK Measuring National Well-being Programme

“Government has the power to help improve well-being”

“From April next year we will start measuring our progress as a country not just by how our economy is growing, but by how our lives are improving, not just by our standard of living, but by our quality of life. …”

David Cameron 25.11.10

https://www.gov.uk/government/speeches/pm-speech-on-wellbeing

How to measure national well-being?

ONS household questions on personal wellbeing

Overall, how satisfied are you with your life nowadays?

Overall, to what extent do you feel the things you do in your life are worthwhile?

Overall, how happy did you feel yesterday?

Overall, how anxious did you feel yesterday?

All asked using a 0 – 10 scale, where 0 is ‘not at all’ and 10 is ‘completely’

Wellbeing measurement and policy

• Prime Minister announced UK government policy to measure wellbeing and progress (and what this would cover)

• Measurement is useless (and costly) unless fit for purpose

• Wellbeing measures to be applied throughout the policy cycle

• Individuals, families, households and businesses also responsible for wellbeing

What will/could measures be used for?

Public interestCompare how different groups and areas are doing

Monitor performance of government

Compare UK with other countries

Less clear?Business decisions, corporate social responsibility, different business models

Personal and household life-style and life choice decisions

PolicyBackdrop and framework for policy development

Policy evaluation to take account of impact on personal well-being

Public value decisions in procurement

International obligations eg Sustainable Development Goals

Moves to bring wellbeing into policy

• Updating Treasury ‘Green Book’• Public Services (Social Value) Act 2012 • Developments in devolved administrations, eg

Scotland Performs and Well-being of Future Generations (Wales) Bill

• Legatum Institute report ‘Wellbeing and Policy’ (2014)

• Wellbeing policy infrastructure and support across Whitehall

• EU support eg BRAINPOoL• But still early days

Potential user base for wider measures of wellbeing

Health and care professionals

Local government and local communities

Individuals

Households and families

Social networks, clubs

Schools and colleges

Research institutes and academia

Government ministers and officials

Think Tanks

Businesses and business associations

Environmental agencies and NGOs

Role of media

News media and social media report and comment directly on the measures when they are released.

Reports from think-tanks and research institutes based on the statistics can follow and be featured in the media.

Although people can ‘follow’ official statistics producers, it is invariably through other media that we become aware of official statistics.

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Discussion

Will it work (this time – not a new idea)? Role of:• Politics• Policy• International organisations• Public and business opinion (shaped/reported by the media)• Champions (eg church leaders?)

General Election looming: The ‘Crosby test’ for electoral strategy:• Do voters/member states/opinion formers think it matters a lot?• Is it an area where political party X/international organisation Y

are judged to be strong?

Or is more research needed to refine the measures and their use?• Many statistical developments under way eg social capital,

natural capital, and more ‘Stiglitz Commission’ work

Getting it?

• “Enough of the politics of dry numbers. We need to discuss values and vision” (Will Hutton, The Observer, 22.03.2015)

• “... in the last decade Chinatown has steadily improved ... It would be a crying shame if all this real progress was stopped in its tracks by heavy-handed landlords seemingly with their eyes only on the bottom line” (Jay Rayner, The Observer, 29.03.2015)

• “Today, Japan is more about quality of life than quantities of stuff, In its combination of restraint, frugality and civility, the country may serve as one of our best societal models of sustenance for the future” (Roland Kelts, New Statesman, 20-26 March 2015)

Conclusions?

Early days in a long-term development

Still waiting for the paradigm shift – for governments, businesses and individuals to switch to thinking about wellbeing and progress more broadly than just the financial bottom line, GDP and monetary return on investment

Some specific suggestions• More joining up of GDP and wellbeing measures by NSOs.• More companies reporting using triple bottom line• More examination of VFM in wellbeing terms• Evolve System of National Accounts to Process of National

Wellbeing Accounting

Conclusion

If we do not come up with better measures for how countries are doing, it is difficult to see how we can understand what progress we are making, and what sort of world we are handing on to future generations.

“A great book that adds much needed well-reasoned argument and weight to the global debate on how we better measure what is getting better and what is not.”Daniel Dorling, School of Geography and the Environment, University of Oxford

•What is national wellbeing and what is progress?

•Why measure these definitions?

•Why are measures beyond economic performance needed and how will they be used?

•How do we measure national wellbeing & turn the definitions into observable quantities?

•Where are we now and where to next?

These questions are asked and answered in this much needed, timely book by Paul Allin and David J. Hand.