Prof Lord Richard Layard

Member of the House of Lords, Professor and Founder-Director of LSE’s Centre for Economic Performance and Co-director of the Centre’s program on Community Wellbeing

Description

Richard Layard is emeritus Professor of Economics at the London School of Economics, where he founded and directed the Centre for Economic Performance – one of Europe’s leading research centres. He is now Co-Director of the Centre’s Community Wellbeing Programme and a member of the UK House of Lords where he focuses on education, employment, mental health, and of course, wellbeing policy. Until 2000, he worked mainly on unemployment and inequality and co-authored the influential book Unemployment: Macroeconomic Performance and the Labour Market. Since 2000, he has been studying happiness. In 2005 he wrote the best-selling book Happiness: Lessons from a New Science, translated into 20 languages. He has had huge influence on making psychological therapy more widely available in Britain’s National Health Service, and in 2014 co-authored Thrive on how we can secure a better deal for mental health. In 2018 he co-authored The Origins of Happiness – an analysis of what determines our happiness, based on a range of longitudinal datasets. Richard’s latest book Can we be happier? The evidence and ethics for better lives explores how teachers, managers, health professionals, couples, community leaders, economists, scientists, politicians, and we as individuals can create a happier world. He is also co-founder of Action for Happiness, an international movement to promote a happier way of living.

Sessions

Evaluating Bold Policy Proposals - Children and psychosocial skills
May 14, 2021
10:00 AM - 11:50 PM
Panel presentations and live discussion with wellbeing research, policy and practice leaders to propose and assess the feasibility of specific bold, cost-effective, evidence-based and impactful policies for wellbeing.
Speakers
Sarah Flèche
Assistant Professor at Aix-Marseille School of Economics, Research Associate at the Well-Being Observatory (CEPREMAP) and LSE Centre for Economic Performance
Shelley Phipps
Professor of Economics, Dalhousie University
Prof Lord Richard Layard
Member of the House of Lords, Professor and Founder-Director of LSE’s Centre for Economic Performance and Co-director of the Centre’s program on Community Wellbeing
Nora Spinks
Chief Executive Officer, Vanier Institute of the Family
Lisa Wolff
Director, Policy and Research / Directrice des politiques et de l’éducation, UNICEF Canada
Margo Greenwood
Academic Leader, National Collaborating Centre for Indigenous Health
Mary Bartram
Policy Director, Mental Health Commission of Canada & Adjunct Professor, Carleton University