1 Measuring Happiness and Making Policy Gert G. Wagner OECD Global Project - Measuring the Progress of Societies, Istanbul, June 27-30, 207

Making Policy – Good policy actions require causal inference – Cross-sectional studies do not allow to draw causal inference – Natural experiments are rare – Longitudinal studies are rare too

Longitudinal Studies – Longitudinal studies which contain variables about subjective well-being – BHPS – German SOEP – ECHP – e. g. Andrew Clark, Paul Frijters and Michael Shields, Relative Income, Happiness and Utility, IZA Discussion Paper No. 2840, Bonn

Evidence Based Policy Actions Basis: negative impact on satisfaction with life in general after occurence of unemployment, disability and commuting – Fighting unemployment – Information campaign about commuting – Better saftey regulations (e. g. at workplace)