Measuring Progress: STATEC Well-being Seminar Series

Toward a National Index of Well-Being.
Dr. Kristen Cooper, Gordon College
17:00 CET (11:00 AM Eastern) – 18:00 CET (12:00 PM Eastern)
10 October 2023

Abstract: This talk offers an overview of a research project from Dan Benjamin, Kristen Cooper, Ori Heffetz, Miles Kimball, and other coauthors, which is developing the methodology for a national index of well-being. The proposed welfare measure is distinguished by several important features: (a) grounded in economic theory; (b) includes all of what matters in people’s lives; (c) accounts for differences in the way people use response scales for self-reported well-being; (d) accounts for differences in preferences; and (e) reflects society’s views about inequality of well-being. The talk focuses on the first step, a personal well-being survey which combines self-reported well-being questions about many dimensions of life with stated preference questions (to estimate the relative weights or importance of the dimensions) and calibration questions (to adjust for interpersonal differences in scale use). Results from a U.S. sample on MTurk show the importance of adjusting for general-scale-use heterogeneity.

Dr. Kristen Cooper is an Associate Professor of Economics at Gordon College, a liberal arts college in the Boston area. Kristen’s research interests are in applied microeconomics, including behavioral economics, environmental economics, and consumer behavior. She is currently Co-Investigator on an NIH-supported research team which is developing a methodology for measuring and tracking a national index of well-being. She also studied this topic as a Fulbright U.S. Senior Scholar at the Universidad de La Laguna in Tenerife, Spain. Kristen earned her Ph.D. in Applied Economics and Management from Cornell University and her Bachelor of Arts in Economics and Spanish from Gordon College.

Please find the invitation and registration here.