Due to differences in academic calendars between Leeds and Berlin, the course will last into the summer term for students of Freie Universität Berlin. You will hand in your final projects in the first weeks of the summer term.

Economics of Wellbeing

Lecturer: Prof. Dr. Clemens Hetschko

Tutorial & digital administration: Tom Günther

Preliminary Scheduling

Start: Feburary 2022

End: May 2022

Recognition: Ausgewählte Themen der Sozialpolitik (6 ECTS): Master Economics, Master Public Economics

Content & Organization:

This module familiarises students with the economics of wellbeing and provides a training in applied data analyses. In the lectures, we will answer the question why measuring individual and societal welfare has become an urgent topic in economics. Then, the concepts and methods of wellbeing research will be introduced. On this basis, we will discuss applications of wellbeing research in economics, such as welfare measurement, labour market policy and cost-benefit analysis. In the course of the problem class, students will conduct their own empirical wellbeing research project using STATA.

The course is a new collaborative teaching project of the University of Leeds and Freie Universität Berlin. As such, it will give you the unique opportunity to work together and exchange your ideas with fellow students from the UK.

The lecture will be held at the University of Leeds. Students of Freie Universität Berlin will be able to participate live online. Tutorials will be organized as online sessions. If the situation allows, face-to-face meetings for students of Freie Universität Berlin will also take place.

Registration:

24 slots are available for enrollment via Campus Management. If we have more applications than spots, a lottery will decide on the final allocation.

Since spots are limited, please only enroll if you really want to participate. Do not take away the opportunity of participating from your colleagues just because you are not sure what to take this semester and want to keep your options open.

Important: You can only enroll for the lecture in Campus Management. We will allocate the tutorial slots after any lottery that we might have to draw. So please be patient if the module is not marked as fully booked in your module overview.

Topics (examples)

• Why Economists Study Happiness
• Concepts and Methods of Happiness Research
• Does Income Increase Welfare?
• Welfare Measurement
• The True Cost of Unemployment
• Labor Market Policy
• Cost-Benefit Analysis

Introductory reading

Weimann, Knabe & Schöb (2015): Measuring happiness: The economics of well-being. MIT Press: Cambridge, Mass.