WISER: Well-being in a Sustainable Economy Revisited

The focus on economic growth as an instrument to lead societies towards sustainable high well-being is increasingly problematic. While Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth is slowing, its environmental and social costs are increasing, such that continued reliance on GDP growth entails a trade-off between the well-being of current versus future generations. In addition, research shows that higher GDP generally hardly improves people’s subjective well-being. To better support policy options, our project aims to develop a new economic development framework that provides evidence-based and theoretically-sound policy insights on how to raise well-being of present generations (leaving no one behind) without sacrificing future well-being. We will identify how GDP growth and productivity growth can be promoted and invested in well-being, focusing on relationships that reconcile economic growth and sustainable high well-being while leaving no person and place behind. We will analyze how these relationships work at different subgroup levels, by explicitly considering gender perspectives and disadvantaged groups. The project’s multi-disciplinary approach integrates knowledge from different disciplines, combining quantitative and qualitative techniques to generate solid evidence. Our case studies will permit deriving important lessons from different regions of the world, Africa in particular. Moreover, the relevance of our policy recommendations will be supported by insights from and interaction with stakeholders. Within the triadic goals of well-being, sustainability, and productivity, the project looks for possible win-win-win pathways, producing a new economic development framework that provides insight into how societies can use greater productivity to aim at greater human well-being. Policymakers will be helped by means of a dashboard and green book, which provide guidance how to achieve sustainable growth and maximize well-being.