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Center for Wellbeing, Welfare and Happiness

How can we live our best lives and create a better society to everyone’s benefit? These are the fundamental questions we seek to answer with our unique, tripartite focus on wellbeing, welfare and happiness.

A good life is both forward-looking, being a life worth living, backward-looking, being a life well-lived, and present-oriented, being a life that is enjoyable.

Truly good economics means that the actions of and exchanges between individuals, organizations and society have extended and synergetic effects to make a good life for all.

Whereas wellbeing can be construed as cognitive and physical dimensions of a good life, happiness as affective and emotional dimensions of a good life, and welfare as the goodness of state of community and society, they are highly interdependent and intertwined.

Wellbeing increases happiness, and happiness contributes to wellbeing. Welfare, in turn, is both a means to maximize people’s wellbeing and happiness, and dependent on people being so, as people who feel well and happy contribute more to society. 

Contributing to our wellbeing, both as individuals and as a society, is truly the beating heart of economics.
Micael Dahlen
Chaired Professor in Wellbeing, Welfare and Happiness