Interview | Measuring well-being beyond GDP | Claudia Senik

Although very useful and important, gross domestic product (GDP) is not enough to measure people’s well-being. While reflecting all market transactions, certain welfare externalities are not taken into account in its assessment. In this video, Claudia Senik thus explains how economists measure people’s well-being beyond GDP.

Claudia Senik is professor at the Paris School of Economics and at Sorbonne University. She is director of the Wellness Observatory at the Centre for economic research and its applications (Cepremap), and member of the Institut Universitaire de France. Her research focuses on the economics of subjective well-being, and in particular on the link between income, growth, inequality and happiness.

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• Helliwell J. F., Layard R., Sachs J. D., De Neve J.-E., Aknin L. B. & Wang S., 2023, “World Happiness Report”, Gallup.
• Perona M. & Senik C., 2023, “Le Bien-être en France, rapport 2022”, Observatoire du bien-être, Centre pour la recherche économique et ses applications.
• Friedman-Sokuler N. & Senik C., 2023, “Time-Use and Subjective Well-Being: Is Diversity Really the Spice of Life?”, IZA Discussion Paper N° 16090.
• Prati A. & Senik C., 2022, “Feeling Good Is Feeling Better", Psychological Science, 33(11), 1828–1841.
• Senik C., 2020, “Bien-être au travail. Ce qui compte”, Les Presses de Sciences Po, coll. « Sécuriser l’emploi ».
• Cetre S., Clark A. & Senik C., 2016, “Happy People Have Children: Choice and Self-Selection into Parenthood”, European Journal of Population, 32(3), 445-473.
• Clark A., Flèche S. & Senik C., 2016, “Economic Growth Evens-Out Happiness: Evidence from Six Surveys”, Review of Income and Wealth, 62(3), 405-420.
• Godechot O. & Senik C., 2015, “Wage comparisons in and out of the firm. Evidence from a matched employer–employee French database”, Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization, 117: 395-410.
• Senik C., 2014, “Why are the French so Unhappy? The Cultural Dimension of Happiness”, Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization, 106: 379-401.
• Clark A. & Senik C., 2010, “Who Compares to Whom? The Anatomy of Income Comparisons in Europe”, The Economic Journal, 120, 573–594.
• Senik C., 2008, “Ambition and Jealousy: Income Interactions in the Old Europe versus the New Europe and the United States”, Economica, 75 (299), 495-513.
• Senik C., 2008, “Is man doomed to progress?”, Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization, Elsevier, vol. 68(1), 140-152.
• Senik C., 2004, “When Information Dominates Comparison. Learning from Russian Subjective Panel Data”, Journal of Public Economics, 88: 2099-2133.

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