International Conference “Well-being 2021: knowledge for informed decisions”

Hotel Parc Bellevue, Luxembourg, 28 – 30 of June 2021

Organized by The National Institute of Statistics and Economic Studies (STATEC) and the Ministry of the Economy, Luxembourg

This international conference will bring together leading scholars to discuss the quest for better lives. Economists traditionally advocated economic growth as the foremost policy goal, but now even economists often challenge this view. The discussion remains open, indeed flourishes, with more contributors than ever. How do we promote well-being? What are the best policies? What is the role for civil society? How can the happiness literature help facing the environmental, social and economic challenges ahead?

The conference will take place over three days from 28 – 30 of June 2021. We will host four keynote speakers and a roundtable discussing how policy-makers can integrate the findings from well-being studies.

Topics of the conference

This is an interdisciplinary conference welcoming contributions from every field of social sciences, such as economics, sociology, psychology, and political sciences. We especially welcome papers on the following topics:

·       Correlates and consequences of well-being and ill-being (e.g. personality, wealth, productivity, immigration, occupation, health);

·       Well-being over time;

·       Well-being inequality;

·       Inequality, social capital, and inclusive growth;

·       Well-being and the changing environment;

·       Public or private interventions for well-being and their evaluations;

·       Future directions in well-being research;

·       Well-being and ill-being metrics (e.g. single indicators vs. dashboards; micro vs. macro);

·       The impact of Covid-19 on well-being and its correlates;

·       Big data and well-being.

Key-note speakers

The four key-note speakers are: prof. Stefano Bartolini, University of Siena; Mr. John De Graaf, an American author, journalist and film-maker; prof. Carol Graham, Brookings Institution and University of Maryland; and prof. Andrew Oswald, University of Warwick.

Round table

On Tuesday morning the conference will host a round table on “Policy meets research” where representatives of institutions will discuss advantages, disadvantages and limitations of the well-being approach in policy making.

Paper submission and deadlines

To apply, please, submit an abstract complete with name of the author/s and a title to: submitSWB2020@statec.etat.lu. Extended abstracts and full manuscripts are welcome.

The deadline for application is the 15 January 2021. We will notify the authors of accepted papers by the end of March 2021.

For more information, please, visit our conference web-site (www.wellbeing2021.lu) or send an e-mail to: infoSWB2020@statec.etat.lu

We look forward to welcoming you in Luxembourg,

The scientific committee:

Serge Allegrezza, STATEC

Martijn Burger, Erasmus University of Rotterdam

Conchita d’Ambrosio, University of Luxembourg

Johannes Hirata, Osnabruck University

Kelsey O’Connor, STATEC

Chiara Peroni, STATEC

Maurizio Pugno, University of Cassino

Stephanie Rossouw, Auckland University of Technology

Francesco Sarracino, STATEC