The OECD Throws Its Hat into the Happiness Measuring Ring

You'll never guess who this logo belongs to!
From Supply Chain Management Review.

The Guardian reports that the Paris-based Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (or OECD) has started including "life satisfaction" with its economic measures. As part of the OECD's 50th anniversary, The Better Life Index uses these 11 separate dimensions of measurement for each of the OECD's 34 member countries:  housing, income, jobs, community, education, environment, governance, health, life satisfaction, safety, and work-life balance. This should provide a more useful view of progress than the measurement of GDP alone.

OECD secretary-general Angel Gurría says, "This index encapsulates the OECD at 50, pushing the boundaries of knowledge and understanding in a pioneering and innovative manner. People around the world have wanted to go beyond GDP for some time. This index is designed for them. It has extraordinary potential to help us deliver better policies for better lives."

This effort to look beyond GDP is part of a recent trend. It started in Bhutan in the 70s, but within the past year Britain, Germany, Canada, one or two U.S. cities, and more have all started measuring their own happiness. Look at my Gross National Happiness tag for more info.

If YOU want to participate in the OECD's measurements, go to their Better Life website, where you can view stats for each country and take the survey yourself.

Hey, France Is Also Measuring Happiness

The river kinda looks happy already. From cooltownstudios.

Because why not, right? According to this story from the Guardian, France will probably start measuring its national happiness as well, joining the ranks of England and Bhutan. Last year, Nicolas Sarkozy commissioned a happiness report from Nobel-winning economists Joseph Stiglitz and Amartya Sen. More recently Insee, the French national statistics office, included a new chapter in its annual Social Portrait of France. The chapter details how any future happiness studies should take place.

Interestingly, the report focuses more on unhappiness than happiness. Stéfan Lollivier, director of social studies at Insee, explains:

"You can't measure happiness, it's impossible, people don't have the same preferences for what makes them happy. But you can measure the fraction of people who are dissatisfied, who think they are unhappy, and the proportion of people who are missing out on happiness or feel excluded from it."

Current French statistics show that single parents are the most dissatisfied, and around one fifth of the French populace has gone through times of poverty--either emotional or financial.

Most researchers would disagree with Mr. Lollivier, by the way. Positive psychologists measure happiness all the time. Read just about any story on this blog for evidence! Still, this French method of surveying unhappiness should be just as valid, and could yield interesting results.