Economics of Well-Being 30 EC

Connecting economics and the social sciences with its ultimate purpose: improving human well-being. If you want to improve people’s lives, this minor is for you!

We will 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 30EC variant of this course has the following six 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
6. Internship

The first 10 weeks consist of five modules also included in the 15EC version of the minor. Watch this video to learn more about modules 1-5.
The final 10 weeks (with a two-week end-of-year holiday break in between) will take the form of an internship at the Erasmus Happiness Economics Research Organisation (EHERO) supervised by one of the course lecturers. The internship is hybrid: 1 day per week at the EHERO office and 4 days per week from home. Students will participate alone or in pairs in academic projects, external assignments by practitioners, and other activities related to well-being. All activities have scientific depth and research as their basis, possibly combined with client-driven research where your research is guided by questions from an external party, giving you the opportunity to make a direct impact. Example projects are contributing to reports, whitepapers, blogs and presentations on well-being at work or broad prosperity. Core activities include defining a research strategy, reviewing literature, analyzing data, writing (brief) reports or articles, and formulating conclusions and recommendations. A concrete example is contributing to a trend report on well-being at work in cooperation with a major insurance company.
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, and knowledge about optimizing well-being is also important on a personal level.

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. This page describes the 30EC variant of this minor; a 12/15EC variant of this minor is also available in the catalogue. Having taken economics courses in the past is NOT required. All course activities will take place on campus Woudestein. Attendance and active class participation in the interactive lectures is expected. 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.

Teaching Methods
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
*Week 11-*20: Meetings Module 6

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. Module 6 allows students to work closely with a well-being expert.

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)

Module 6 “Internship”
Portfolio assessment Internship at EHERO

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. The internship portfolio will be evaluated and graded on the regular 1-10 scale by a two-person committee: the supervisor and course coordinator. The portfolio contains all substantial activities performed and products created during the internship.

Composition final grade
The final grade of the minor is the weighted average of the five modules (50% of the final grade) and the internship (50%). An average grade of 5.5 is sufficient to pass the minor. 90% of the course grade is based on individual assessments, and an individual adjustment based on peer evaluations is applied in the group assessment.