In 2020, we are working on four research projects.

Project 1 - Theoretical work on subjective well-being measures
This project is a mixture of original philosophical investigation and literature review on the following questions:

• Are SWB measures valid and reliable? That is, do they capture what they are supposed to capture? 
• Which measure(s) of well-being should we use - life satisfaction, happiness, or something else? 
• Are SWB scales cardinally comparable? That is, if two people each report a 1-point increase on the same 10-point scale, can we assume their SWB has gone up by the same amount?

Project 2 - Assessing the cost-effectiveness of life-improving interventions in terms of subjective well-being
How can we use SWB to evaluate the cost-effectiveness of global health and development interventions? How strong is the currently available evidence? How do our priorities change when we use SWB as compared to more traditional metrics? 

• We are starting with a systematic review of the impact of cash transfers on SWB - read the protocol here. Like others, we see cash transfers as a useful baseline for other interventions. Further, cash transfers are among the most extensively studied and implemented interventions in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs).

Project 3 - Mental health programme evaluation. 
A team of volunteers are searching for the most effective programmes tackling depression and anxiety in LMICs. Read more here.

Project 4 - Scoping reports into pain, mental health, and positive education.
These reports aim to investigate means to improve global well-being that seem unduly neglected. We are considering the scale, neglectedness, bottlenecks, and solutions within each broadly-defined cause area. Read about our positive education plan here.

​Click here to view our broader research agenda.