Let’s work together to create a happier world
The Happier Lives Institute connects donors, researchers, and policymakers with the most cost-effective opportunities to increase global wellbeing.
Using the latest subjective wellbeing data, we identify the problems that matter most to people and find evidence-based ways to solve them.
The Happier Lives Institute connects donors, researchers, and policymakers with the most cost-effective opportunities to increase global wellbeing.
Using the latest subjective wellbeing data, we identify the problems that matter most to people and find evidence-based ways to solve them.
Measuring what matters
Most people agree that happiness matters.
You might think it is the only thing that matters.
Over the last 30 years, pioneering academics in economics, philosophy, and psychology have tested and developed reliable measures of happiness and life satisfaction.
Today, large population surveys allow us to measure and track wellbeing across the world. We can stop relying on measures of wealth or health as our best guess for how people’s lives are going.
But what is wellbeing and how can we measure it?
You can make a difference
The cost-effective interventions we’ve identified may surprise you.
Our research shows that treating depression in low-income countries is nine times more cost-effective than providing direct cash transfers.
Our latest news and research
Research Agenda 2023
We set out our research priorities. Read more
HLI’s work is discussed on the 80k podcast: Some comments
On the 2nd of June 2023, Elie Hassenfeld was interviewed on the 80'000 hours podcast. Here, we present our responses. Read more
Lead Exposure: a shallow cause exploration
In this shallow cause exploration, we explore the impact of lead exposure on subjective wellbeing. We review the literature, model the impact of lead exposure on wellbeing, and conduct some back-of-the-envelope calculations of the cost-effectiveness of various interventions to decrease lead exposure. Read more
