| Abstract: |
A central question for policy evaluation in the UK is how to measure
wellbeing. To address this, wellbeing years (WELLBYs) were developed at the
London School of Economics to assign social and economic value to changes in
personal wellbeing. Now adopted in the Treasury's Green Book, a WELLBY
represents a one-point change (on a 0-10 scale) in overall life satisfaction
for one year, currently valued at GBP15, 920 in 2024 prices. While this
approach works effectively for adults, a parallel measure for children has
been absent, due to the lack of a consistent way of assigning value. Isaac
Parkes, research associate in CEP's Wellbeing programme, proposes expanding
the WELLBY framework by introducing child wellbeing years (C-WELLBYs). |