Francesco Sarracino (Head of Unit)

Professional experience

• Senior Researcher - STATEC Research (current).
• External expert on “Monitoring Convergence in Europe" - Eurofounds (current).
• External expert on “Survey management and development" - Eurofounds (current).
• Associated Researcher - Laboratory for Comparative Social Research, Higher School of Economics, Russia.
• Member of the expert group on “Quality of Life Indicators" - EUROSTAT.
• Marie Curie post-doctoral research fellow - Ceps/Instead, Luxembourg.
• DAAD Fellow - GESIS Leibniz Institute for the Social Sciences, Cologne, Germany.
• Visiting researcher - Institute for Social and Economic Research (ISER), Essex, Colchester, Great Britain.
• Visiting researcher - CEPS/INSTEAD research centre, Differdange, Luxembourg.

Education

• Ph.D. in Development Economics, University of Firenze (Italy).
• Master degree in Environmental Economics, University of Siena (Italy).

Honors

• Sept. 2020: 2019 Best Annual Applied Research in Quality of Life Paper Award for the paper: “Consume more, work longer, and be unhappy: possible social roots of economic crisis?”.
• Mar. 2020 - to date Member of the World Wellbeing Panel, London School of Economics and Barcelona Graduate School of Economics.
• Nov. 2016 - to date Member of the Board of Directors of the International Society for Quality of Life Studies.
• Jan. 2012: Firenze University Press and City of Firenze Research Prize “Città di Firenze”, 2011. The prize consists in a peer-reviewed publication of the Ph.D. thesis.

Funding

• FNR COVID-19 Grant funding the research project “Preferences Expressed Through Twitter”, Principal Investigator - Fonds National de la Recherche, Luxembourg, Luxembourg.
• Marie Curie and Fonds National de la Recherche post-doctoral research fellowship - CEPS/INSTEAD, Differdange, Luxembourg.
• DAAD fellowship - GESIS Leibniz Institute for the Social Sciences, Cologne, Germany.
• European Commission fellowship as visiting researcher - Institute for Social and Economic Research (ISER), Essex, Colchester, Great Britain.
• European Commission fellowship as visiting researcher - CEPS/INSTEAD research centre, Differdange, Luxembourg.

Teaching experience

• Oct. 2016 to date: “Introduction to Data Analysis using STATA”, University of Luxembourg (15 hours).
• Apr. – May 2015: “Happiness economics”, Higher School of Economics, Luxembourg (60 hours).
• Supervision of master students at the University of Luxembourg and Higher School of Economics.

Relevant publications

• Wu, F. and Sarracino, F. (2026). Consumption expenditures, social capital, and subjective well-being: evidence from Australia. Review of Economics of the Household.
• Sarracino, F. and Slater, G. (2026). Economic Possibilities for our Grandchildren Reloaded: How to Promote Sustainable Well-Being for all. Applied Research Quality Life.
• Purcell, W. M., Schmidt, A., Sitati, E., Shekhar, H., Dodman, D., Sarracino, F., Anderson, J., De Wijn, M. and Moreno, E. (2026), Adopting a Quality-of-Life Approach to Urban Development: Proposing a New Framework Based on Structural, Fairness, and Perception Lenses, Sustainability, 18(4), 2102.
• Burger, M., Courchesne, S., Greyling, T., O'Connor K.J., Rossouw S., Sarracino F., Veenhoven R. (2026), Using Subjective Well-being as a Headline Indicator in Dashboards to Track Human Progress, Applied Research in Quality of Life, Online.
• Burger, M., Courchesne, S., Kostarakos, I., Peroni, C., Sarracino, F., and Stavropoulos, S. (2025). Subjective well-being and regional productivity in the European Union. The Annals of Regional Science 74, 88. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00168-025-01415-0
• Sarracino, F. and O'Connor, K. J. (2025). Governments should prioritize well-being over economic growth, Nature Human Behaviour.
• Sarracino, F. and Slater, G. (2024), The Trust Paradox (Pdf), ISQOLS Working Paper, No. 4, ISQOLS.
• Bartolini, S., Piekalkiewicz, M., Sarracino, F., Slater, G. (2023), The moderation effect of social capital in the relationship between own income, social comparisons and subjective well-being: Evidence from four international datasets, PlosONE, 18(12).
• Fumarco, L., Gaddis, S.M., Sarracino, F. and Snoddy, I. (2024), sendemails: an automated email package with multiple applications, The STATA Journal, Volume 24, Issue 1, pp. 138-160.
• Sarracino, F., Greyling, T., O'Connor, K.J., Peroni, C., and Rossouw, S. (2023), A year of pandemic: levels, changes and validity of well-being data from Twitter. Evidence from ten countries, PLoS ONE, 18(2): e0275028.
• Sarracino F., Riillo C.A.F (2022) Facing the challenge of globalisation: the role of confidence in institutions, Science and Peace, 13(1), pp. 85-136. 
• Sarracino, F. and O'Connor, K. J. (2022), A measure of well-being efficiency based on the World Happiness Report (Pdf), International Productivity Monitor, (43), 10-40.
• Peroni, C., Pettinger, M., and F. Sarracino (2022), Productivity Gains from Workers' well-being in Europe (Pdf), International Productivity Monitor, (43), 41-61.
• DiMaria, C.H., Peroni, C. and Sarracino, F. (2022), From economic productivity to productive well-being: the role of life satisfaction and adjusted net savings (Pdf), International Productivity Monitor, (43), 62-80.
• Sarracino, F. and O'Connor, K. J. (2022), Neo-humanism and Covid-19: opportunities for a socially and environmentally sustainable world, Applied Research in Quality of Life, On-line first.
• Jovanovic V., Sarracino F., Lazic M., and Gavrilov-Jerkovicz V. (2021), Well-being and the pandemic: Trust in people matters more than trust in institutions, Psychological Reports, On-line first.
• Sarracino, F., O’Connor, K.J., and Ono, H. (2021), Are economic growth and well-being compatible: Welfare reform and life satisfaction in Japan. Oxford Economic Papers, online first.
• Pugno, M. and Sarracino, F. (2021). Structural changes in economic growth and well-being. The case of Italy's parabola, Social Indicators Research, online first.
• Sarracino, F. and Piekalkiewicz, M. “The role of income and social capital for Europeans' well-being during the 2008 economic crisis”, Journal of Happiness Studies, 2020, DOI: 10.1007/s10902-020-00285-x.
• Fumarco, L., Baert, S. and Sarracino, F. “Younger, dissatisfied, and unhealthy - relative age in adolescence”, Economics and Human Biology, 2020, Vol. 37,100858.
• DiMaria, C.H., Peroni, C., and Sarracino, F. “Happiness matters: a test of the role of well-being in productivity”, Journal of Happiness Studies, 2020, vol. 21, n. 1, pp. 139-160.
• Sabatini, F., and Sarracino, F. “Online social networks and trust”, Social Indicators Research, 2019, vol. 142, pp. 229-260.
• Sarracino, F., and Fumarco, L. “Assessing the non-financial outcomes of social enterprises in Luxembourg”, Journal of Business Ethics, 2018, DOI: 10.1007/s10551-018-4086-9.
• Bartolini, S. and Sarracino, F. (2018), Do people care about future generations? Derived preferences from happiness data, Ecological Economics, vol. 143, 253-275
• Sarracino, F. and Mikucka, M. “Consume More, Work Longer, and Be Unhappy: Possible Social Roots of Economic Crisis?", Applied Research Quality Life, 2018. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11482-017-9581-0
• Mikucka, M., Sarracino, F., and Joshua K. Dubrow “When does economic growth improve life satisfaction? Multilevel analysis of the roles of social trust and income inequality in 46 countries, 1981-2012", World Development, 2017, vol. 93, pp.447-459;
• Sabatini, F. and Sarracino, F. “Online networks and subjective well-being", Kyklos, 2017, vol. 70, n. 3, pp. 456-480;
• Sarracino, F., Riillo, C.F.A., and Mikucka, M. “Comparability of web and telephone surveys for the measurement of subjective well-being”, Survey Research Methods, 2017, vol. 11, n. 2;
• Sarracino, F. and Mikucka, M. “Bias and efficiency loss in regression estimates due to duplicated observations: a Monte Carlo simulation", Survey Research Methods, 2017, vol. 11, n. 1, pp. 17-44;
• Sarracino, F. and Mikucka, M. "Social capital in Europe from 1990 to 2012: trends and convergence". Social Indicators Research, 2016, DOI: 10.1007/s11205-016-1255-z;
• Bartolini, S. and Sarracino, F. “Twent-five years of materialism: do the US and Europe diverge?". Social Indicators Research, 2016, DOI: 10.1007/s11205-016-1381-7;
• Peroni, C., Riillo, C. and Sarracino, F. "Entrepreneurship and immigration: evidence from GEM Luxembourg". Small Business Economics, 2016, 10.1007/s11187-016-9708-y;
• Bartolini, S., Mikucka, M. and Sarracino, F. "Money, trust and happiness in Transition countries: evidence from time-series". Social Indicators Research, 2015, DOI: 10.1007/s11205-015-1130-3;
• Bartolini, S. and Sarracino, F. "The dark side of Chinese growth: declining social capital and well-being in times of economic boom". World Development, 2015, vol. 74, pp. 333 - 351;
• Bartolini, S. and F. Sarracino. "Happy for how long? How social capital and GDP relate to happiness over time". Ecological Economics, 2014, vol. 108, pp. 242 - 256;
• Bartolini, S., Bonatti, L. and Sarracino, F. "The great recession and the bulimia of U.S. consumers: deep causes and possible ways out". Cambridge Journal of Economics, 2014, vol. 38, n. 5, pp. 1015 - 1042;
• Sarracino, F., “Richer in money, poorer in relationships and unhappy? Time-series comparisons of social capital and well-being in Luxembourg”. Social Indicators Research, 2013, DOI: 10.1007/s11205-012-0223-5;
• Sarracino, F., “Determinants of subjective well-being in high and low income countries: do happiness equations differ across countries?”. Journal of Socio-Economics, 2013, Vol. 42, pp. 51 - 66, DOI: 10.1016/j.socec.2012.11.006;
• Bartolini S., Bilancini E. and Sarracino F., “Predicting the trend of well-being in Germany: how much do comparisons, adaptation and sociability matters”. Social Indicators Research, 2012, DOI: 10.1007/s11205-012-0142-5;
• Sarracino, F. “Money, sociability and happiness: are developed countries deemed to social erosion and unhappiness? Timeseries analysis of social capital and subjective well-being in western Europe, Australia, Canada and Japan”. Social IndicatorsResearch, 2011, DOI: 10.1007/s11205-011-9898-2;
• Sarracino, F., “Social Capital and Subjective Well-Being trends: Evidence from 11 western European countries”. Journal of Socio-Economics, vol. 39, n. 4, August 2010;

Book chapters

• Burger, M., Greyling, T., Rossouw, S., Sarracino, F. and Wu, F. (2026), Social media and wellbeing in the Middle East & North Africa. In World Happiness Report 2026 (pp.243-268). Wellbeing Research Centre, University of Oxford.
• Bartolini, S. and Sarracino, F. (2024). Happiness and Ecology. In: Zimmermann, K.F. (Eds) Handbook of Labor, Human Resources and Population Economics. Springer, Cham.
• Sarracino, F.(2023), Post-growth happiness in Leo Bormans, The New World Book of Happiness, Lanoo.
• Sarracino, F., and O’Connor, K.J. (2021), Economic growth and well-being beyond the Easterlin paradox (Xml), in A Modern Guide to the Economics of Happiness. Edited by Luigino Bruni, Alessandra Smerilli, and Dalila De Rosa. Edward Elgar.
• Sarracino, F., “When does economic growth improve well-being?”, in M. Rojas (ed.), The Economics of Happiness, Springer, 2019, pp. 355-370.
• Sarracino, F., Quality of life in Luxembourg: key results from the PIBien-être project, 2018 Sozialalmanach Schwéierpunkt: D’sozial Kohesioun um Spill?, 227-250, 2018.
• Bartolini S., Sarracino F. and Bilancini E. “Social capital predicts happiness: worldwide evidence from time series”, in Stefano Bartolini, L. Bruni and P. Porta (eds.) Policies for Happiness, Oxford University Press, forthcoming;
• Sarracino F. and Bartolini S. “Are stressful jobs the price to pay for economic prosperity?”, in F. Sarracino, ed., “The happiness compass: theories, actions and perspectives for well-being”, Nova Science Publishers, forthcoming;

Encyclopaedic items

• Sarracino, F. and Slater, G. (2023), Social capital and Subjective Well-Being in Roger Fernandez-Urbano and Hilke Brockmann, Encyclopedia on Happiness, Quality of Life and Subjective Well-being, Edward Elgar.
• Peroni, C. and Sarracino, F. (2023), Productivity and Subjective Well-Being in Roger Fernandez-Urbano and Hilke Brockmann, Encyclopedia on Happiness, Quality of Life and Subjective Well-being, Edward Elgar.
• “Easterlin paradox” in: Frederick F. Wherry & Juliet B. Schor (Eds.). The SAGE Encyclopedia of Economics and Society. SAGE Publications Inc., Thousand Oaks, 2015.

Short articles and reports

• O’Connor, K.J., Peroni, C., Sarracino F., Slater G., and Wu, F. (2025). Supporting others: How prosocial behaviour reduces deaths of despair in, World Happiness Report 2025 (pp.159–192).
• Sarracino, F. and Slater, G. (2025). The Trust Paradox. In Jesus Peiro Palomino , Ibahim Semih Akcomak. Akcomak (Eds.), Research Agenda on Social Capital in Economic Development. Edward Elgar Publishing.
• O'Connor, K.J., Peroni, C., Sarracino, F., Slater, G. and Wu, F. (2025), Supporting others: How prosocial behaviour reduces deaths of despair, World Happiness Report 2025, World Happiness Report.
• Sarracino, F., Greyling, T., O'Connor, K.J., Peroni, C., Rossouw, S. (2024), Trust predicts compliance to Covid-19 containment policies: evidence from ten countries using big data, Economics and Human Biology, vol. 54.
• Sarracino, F., O'Connor, K.J. (2023), Happy Life Years in Luxembourg, In Rapport PIBien-etre 2023, N°01 03/2024 – ANALYSES, STATEC.
• Sarracino, F., Ametepe, F.S., Hartung A. (2022) Pibien-être Report 2022, STATEC, Luxembourg.
• Peroni, C., O’Connor, K.J., Riillo, C.A.F., Santoleri, P., Sarracino, F., and Sivec, V. (2021), Studies from STATEC Research: timely information on well-being and the economy, in Bilan Compétitivité et Résilience 2021: Très bonne résistance de l'économie luxembourgeoise. Ministère de l’Économie, Observatoire de la compétitivité, chapter 5.
• Sarracino, F., Greyling, T., O'Connor, K.J., Peroni, C., and Rossouw S. (2021). Trust predicts compliance with Covid-19 containment policies: evidence from ten countries using big data (Pdf). 2022. IZA Discussion Paper No 15171.
• Sarracino, F., and O’Connor, K.J., Greyling, T., Peroni, C., and Rossouw S., (2021) From tweets to statistics: Sentiment analysis of tweets reveals how people’s feelings have changed during the pandemic in Luxembourg. STATEC Regards No. 2.
• Sarracino, F. “Job insecurity worsened for 25% of the residents as a consequence of the COVID-19 crisis". STATEC Regards N. 8, 2020;
• O’Connor, K.J., Morgan, R., Peroni, C. and Riilllo, C.A.F. and Sarracino, F., (2020) Thematic Studies (2020) In Competitiveness Report 2020: Vulnerabilities and resilience, Ministère de l’Économie, Observatoire de la compétitivité, chapter 5.
• Hiez, D. and Sarracino, F. “Social enterprises and their ecosystems in Europe – updated country report Luxembourg". Luxembourg: Publication office of the European Union, 2020;
• O’Connor, K.J., Peroni, C, Riillo, C. A. F. and Sarracino, F., (2019), Thematic Studies, In Bilan Compétitivité 2019: Focus sur l’entrepreneuriat, Ministère de l’Économie, Observatoire de la compétitivité, 215-231, Chapter 8.
• Fumarco, L., Peroni, C., and Sarracino, F. “PIBien-etre: the report". STATEC, l’Institut national de la statistique et des études économiques, 2018;
• Sarracino, F. and Peroni, C. “Report on social enterprises in Luxembourg". STATEC, l’Institut national de la statistique et des études économiques, September 2015;
• Ruckert, E. and Sarracino, F. “Assessing the social and solidarity economy in Luxembourg". Economie et Statistiques, n. 75/2014, April 2014;
• Sarracino, F. “2008: a crisis odissey”. Forum fur Politik, Gesellschaft und Kultur in Luxemburg, n. 295, April 2010.

In the media

• Sarracino, F. (2025), Neo-humanism for a sustainable urban future, improof.lu.
• Letzebuerger Journal (2022) "The well-being agenda"
• NewScientist (2022) "The happiness revolution: how to boost the well-being of society"
• Nikkei Asia (2021) "New research reveals the myth of Japan's 'lost decades” (with Hiroshi Ono and Kelsey J. O' Connor)
• Science.lu (2018) "Et si l'argent ne faisait pas le bonheur", PIBien-être: the report. Measuring quality of life in Luxembourg
• PHYS.ORG (2018) "Why economic growth does not necessarily contribute to human happiness"

Invited speaker

• “COVID-19: Challenges and opportunities for Neo-humanism", 25th of August 2020, keynote speech at the International Society for Quality of Life Studies 2020 Virtual Conference;
• “Growth and Degrowth: rethinking the role of our economy in creating social welfare", 15th of January 2020, invited speech at the Lunch Seminars of CARITAS Luxembourg;
• “Promote, protect and reduce: recipes for durable well-being", 20th of March 2019, invited speech at the Lunch Seminars of CARITAS Luxembourg;
• “Greater well-being for people and the economy", 4th of July 2018, speaker at the Annual Conference of the Italian Statistical Office, ISTAT, Rome, Italy;
• “Promote, protect and reduce: suggestions for durable well-being", 6th of April 2018, speaker at the USC Happiness Conference in honour of Richard Easterlin, University of Southern California Dornsife, Los Angeles;
• “Greater well-being for people and the economy", 9th of November 2017, speaker at the Workshop on European Social Survey, LISER, Belval/Esch-sur-Alzette, Luxembourg;
• “Estimation error due to duplicated observations: a Monte Carlo simulation”, 20th of April 2016, keynote speech at 6th LCSR International Workshop: "Trust, social capital and values in a comparative perspective", Higher School of Economics, Moscow, Russia.
• "Shut down Facebook and be happy!", 13th of February 2015, invited speaker at EUROSTAT General Assembly 2015, EUROSTAT, Luxembourg.
• "For a socially sustainable economic system", 17th of January 2015, invited speaker at the conference: "Tuscany: A Global Laboratory for Quality of Life", Regione Toscana, Firenze, Italy.
• "Making economic growth and well-being compatible: the role of social capital and income inequality", 9-10th of October 2014, invited speaker at the workshop: "Public goods through private eyes", University of Warsaw, Warsaw, Poland.
• "2008 Economic crisis and well-being in Europe", 29th of September 2014, invited speaker at the International Conference: "Personality traits and subjective well-being in the life course", Collegio Carlo Alberto, Turin, Italy.
• "For a socially sustainable economic system", 30th of March 2014, keynote speech at the 4th International Annual Research Conference: "Social and cultural changes in cross-national perspective: values and modernization", Higher School of Economics, Moscow, Russia.
• "All that glitters ain't gold! A beyond GDP strategy for well-being", 15th of November 2013, keynote speech at the 3rd International Annual Research Conference: "Cultural and economic changes under cross-national perspective", Higher School of Economics, Moscow, Russia.