Wellbeing economics and policy: Past, present, future

Professor Arthur Grimes discusses wellbeing economics and policy, its past, present, and future in New Zealand.

Inaugural lecture—Professor Arthur Grimes

July 2019

Several countries around the world have embraced ‘wellbeing’ as a guide for public policy. New Zealand has recently joined France, the United Kingdom, Australia, United Arab Emirates, Ecuador, and others in this quest. But what do we mean by wellbeing? Is it the same as welfare? Haven’t these ideas been around for centuries (or millennia)? What is the future for policy based on wellbeing?

Informed by recent research in the field of wellbeing economics and policy, Professor Grimes addresses these questions that are at the heart of current policy-making in New Zealand.

This is Professor Grimes’s inaugural lecture as Professor of Wellbeing and Public Policy at Victoria University of Wellington. Our public lecture series gives you the opportunity to engage with the latest thinking on the world’s major issues.

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