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Happy Planet Index New Economics Foundation Please Note • The information detailed on these slides were found directly from the Happy Planet Index website at happyplanetindex.org. • This material has been compiled by the NYC Virtual Enterprises Office as resources to students and teachers for educational purposes. Happy Planet Index • The Happy Planet Index (HPI) is a measure of progress. It tells us how well nations are doing in terms of supporting their inhabitants to live “good” lives now, while ensuring that others can do the same in the future. It points the way towards sustainable well-being for all. – Way to measure the intangible and nonmonetary aspects of society Happy Planet Index Until recently, we have lived with the widespread belief that the world is steadily becoming a better place. An increasingly unstable global economy, rising inequalities, and the pressing challenges of climate change have begun to shatter that belief. One cause of these interlinked crises is the stubborn prioritization of economic growth as the central objective of government, trumping all other objectives. People vote for political parties that they perceive to be most capable of delivering a strong economy, and policy makers prioritize policies that increase in GDP as a result. Doing so has led to short-termism, deteriorating social conditions, and paralysis In the face of climate change. In fact, GDP growth on its own does not mean a better life for everyone, particularly in countries that are already wealthy. It does not reflect inequalities in material conditions between people in a country. It does not properly value the things that really matter to people like social relations, health, or how they spend their free time. And crucially, ever-more economic growth is incompatible with the planetary limits we are up against. Life Expectancy The average number of years an infant born in that country is expected to live if prevailing patterns of agespecific mortality rates at the time of birth in the country stay the same throughout the infant’s life. Life expectancy is commonly used as an overall indicator of the standard of health in a country. Life Satisfaction The average of all responses from within the population to the following question: “Please imagine a ladder with steps numbered from zero at the bottom to 10 at the top. Suppose we say that the top of the ladder represents the best possible life for you; and the bottom of the ladder represents the worst possible life for you. On which step of the ladder do you feel you personally stand at the present time, assuming that the higher the step the better you feel about your life, and the lower the step the worse you feel about it? Which step comes closest to the way you feel?” This measure of well-being is commonly used as an indicator of how people’s lives are going overall. Inequality of Outcomes A measure of how unequal the distribution of life expectancy and experienced well-being scores are within a particular country. The inequality of outcomes measure is the difference in the product of mean life satisfaction and mean experienced wellbeing, and the product of inequality-adjusted life satisfaction and inequalityadjusted experienced well-being, expressed as a percentage. Ecological Footprint The average amount of land needed, per head of population, to sustain a typical country’s consumption patterns. It includes the land required to provide the renewable resources people use (most importantly food and wood products), the area occupied by infrastructure, and the area required to absorb CO2 emissions. Crucially it is a measure of consumption, not production. This means that, for example, the CO2 associated with the manufacture of a mobile phone made in China but bought by someone living in Chile, will count towards Chile’s Ecological Footprint, not China’s. Ecological Footprint is expressed using a standardized unit: global hectares. A global hectare (gha) is a biologically productive hectare with world average productivity in a given year. How is the Happy Planet Index Calculated? (Pre-2016) Note: The equation is approximate because it leaves out the statistical adjustments. How is the Happy Planet Index Calculated? (2016) Note: The equation is approximate because it leaves out the statistical adjustments. Happy Planet Index Rankings (2012) Happy Planet Index Rankings (2016) Measuring Well-Being To measure well-being, we use data from a globally renowned survey that asks respondents questions about how they feel their lives are going overall. The question we use, known as the Cantril Self-Anchoring Scale or the Ladder of Life, has been used in surveys since the 1960s, and its validity has been demonstrated in a range of different contexts around the world. There is a growing evidence-base showing that subjective measures of wellbeing correlate with more objective measures such as measurement of stress hormones and brain scans. Subjective well-being has been found to accurately predict a range of outcomes – from how long someone will stay in a job or stay married, to how long they live, to the results of elections. As a result, psychologists, sociologists and economists now regularly use subjective well-being data in research, and policy makers are beginning to use to inform decision-making Importantly, by asking a single broad question, it allows the people completing the survey to decide what is important to them: to assess the issues according to their own criteria, to weight each one as they choose, and to produce an overall response. What do you think about these measures? Do you know enough about the Happy Planet Index? • What is the Happy Planet Index? • Why would you use the Happy Planet Index? • What measures are used to determine a country’s Happy Planet Index Score? • Can happiness be measured reliably? • What does a country’s Happy Planet Index score tell you about the country?