Economics of Well-Being 15 EC

Do you want to improve people’s lives? This minor connects economics and the social sciences with its ultimate purpose: improving human well-being.

Throughout this interdisciplinary minor, we examine essential questions such as:

• How can we shape an economy and society that truly enables people to live happier and healthier lives?
• How to create thriving organizations with happy and healthy employees?
• Do people make economic and non-economic choices that truly serve their well-being?
• How can people optimize their quality of life?
• How can well-being become the driving force behind economic and social progress?
  This interdisciplinary course embraces the paradigm shift in economics toward a “Beyond GDP” vision, moving away from the traditional narrow focus on economic growth and income maximization and toward a broader focus on people’s well-being. The course connects economic behavior and phenomena to insights from across the social sciences, including applied economics (e.g. happiness economics and health economics), psychology, sociology, and business studies. We welcome students from both economic and non-economic backgrounds, and the course is designed to be accessible and engaging for both. The course broadens the perspective of economists and offers an ideal introduction to economics for non-economists.
  The course has the following five modules:

1. Well-being: An introduction
2. Empirical analyses of well-being
3. Work and well-being
4. Health and well-being
5. Society and well-being

The graded assessments focus on (1) developing ideas and interventions to improve well-being, (2) developing new insights on well-being using empirical data, and (3) critically reflecting on existing policies and practices. Students will make a real impact by working with companies on meaningful business cases.
This course provides future economists, policy-makers, business leaders, HR specialists, psychologists, and related professions with fundamental expertise in a world where well-being has become a primary theme in organizational and public policies. The course material is also relevant on a more personal level, as personal well-being is important in its own right and instrumental in reaching other goals in life such as a successful career.
Watch this video to learn more about this minor.

After completing this course, the student will be able to …

• explain how economic behavior and phenomena relate to well-being.
• critically reflect on current beliefs and practices related to well-being.
• develop effective strategies and policies to improve well-being.
• illustrate how people’s well-being influences their behaviour and achievements.
• explain why new economic thinking has human well-being at its center.
• conduct empirical analyses on well-being using basic statistical techniques.

Students from all educational backgrounds are welcome in this course. It is a 15EC course for non-ESE students (5 modules; 10 weeks) and a 12EC course for ESE students (4 modules; 8 weeks), but ESE students can optionally do the fifth module and earn 15EC points. This page describes the 12/15 EC variant of this minor; a 30EC variant of this minor is also available in the catalogue.

Having taken economics courses in the past is NOT required. Attendance and active class participation in the interactive lectures is expected. All course activities will take place on campus Woudestein. Students are expected to have an understanding of basic statistics, such as correlations and the basics of regression analysis. No textbooks or other course material has to be purchased for this course. The course is organized by the department of Applied Economics (ESE) and the Erasmus Happiness Economics Research Organisation (EHERO) in partnership with the Erasmus School of Health Policy & Management.

All lectures and tutorials for this course will take place in person. Some interactive lectures require pre-readings and give students the opportunity to discuss their own ideas and insights. In Module 2, students will conduct their own empirical analyses. In Module 3, students will work on a real business case and pitch their solutions to a company representative. In Module 5, students will work on four case studies.

Meetings:

Week 1-2: Meetings Module 1
Week 3: Meetings Module 2
Week 5: Meetings Module 3
Week 7: Meetings Module 4
*Week 9-10:*Meetings Module 5
Note: Module 5 is only for students participating in the 15EC variant, not for students in the 12EC variant.

Teaching material
To learn about well-being, we will read scientific articles and influential reports, and watch videos from top researchers. The reading material will be provided by the lecturers after the start of the course. In Module 2, students will conduct empirical analyses to explore the topic of well-being, which is a great preparation for the Bachelor thesis. Students will be introduced to Stata, an important statistical software program for empirical analyses that will be new to almost all students. The case studies of Modules 3 and 5 help students develop their own ideas about improving well-being.

Examination
This minor has multiple smaller assessments:
Module 1 “Well-being: An introduction”
Multiple-choice exam (10 questions)

Module 2 “Empirical analyses of Well-being”
Individual assignment (research report)

Module 3 “Work and Well-being”
Group assignment (oral pitch on a business case about employee well-being).

Module 4 “Health and Well-being”
Written Exam (about Module 4 only)

Module 5 “Society and Well-being”
Individual Assignment (4 in-class case studies)
General feedback or personalized feedback upon request will be provided for all assessments. Students can always make an appointment with the lecturers for extra feedback.

Composition final grade
The final grade of the minor is the weighted average of the four or five modules. An average grade of 5.5 is sufficient to pass the minor. 75-80% of the course grade is based on individual assessments, and an individual adjustment based on peer evaluations is applied in the group assessment.