'The Economics of Happiness' seminar

The Guild of Guardians’ July breakfast seminar featured Dr Jo Mitchell and his research on the economics of happiness.  During her tenure as Master of the Guild, Vanessa Moon of Moon Exec Search, is focusing on the topic of happiness.  Dr Mitchell examined a number of indicators, such as income or comparisons with one’s peers, to examine the impact each indicator might have on one’s own evaluation of personal happiness.  The illustration on the right indicates how satisfied residents in each country feel about their lives.  Generally, women are more happy than men, people in second marriages tend to be less happy, those earning £60,000 and above tend to be more content.  However, he exposed ’tribal anger’ around issues such as BREXIT or EU sentiment and found that anger with politicians led people to become dissatisfied.  He even offered advice to the government on the types of policy that could make people feel better about their circumstances during the Covid recession.  A fascinating lecture!