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Professor Marc Fleurbaey was appointed to the Stiglitz-Sen-Fitoussi Commission (instituted by President Sarkozy) on the Measurement of Economic Performance and Social Progress during 2007-09. His work at the LSE on measures of the quality of life and on criteria for the fair allocation of resources significantly shaped the Commission's thinking and had three forms of impact. A direct outcome of the Commission's report was fifty changes to the way that Eurostat and the associated national statistical institutes of the EU collect, report, and use data. The Commission's report also had impact on public debates around the world and was the subject of discussions in major media outlets globally and at high-profile conferences. Fleurbaey's work for the Commission and his research at LSE also led to his appointment to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and to his role as an advisor to the French Health Authority and Parliament.
The British Household Panel Study (BHPS) is a longitudinal survey that has followed a representative sample of individuals since the early 1990s. The resource is used routinely by government departments (e.g. DWP, HMRC, Cabinet Office) and third-sector bodies (e.g. Children's Society) for their research and for monitoring progress towards policy targets. The data's longitudinal character has helped to transform government departments' understanding of the goals of social policies, and allowed them to redefine targets in ways not possible without the BHPS. Examples include DWP's monitoring of persistent poverty, which uses BHPS data to estimate the probability of an individual living in poverty for several successive years.
Research carried out at the University of Aberdeen into the factors that influence the job satisfaction, health and well-being of employees has directly informed national and international policy reviews and reports. In the UK, recommendations from the research were incorporated into the Hutton Review of Fair Pay in the Public Sector; internationally, they were included in several EU Commission policy reviews and business press reports. The research was also presented direct to policy makers at EU forums and achieved considerable secondary reach through media coverage.
The Wellbeing Programme at the LSE's Centre for Economic Performance (CEP) was founded in 2001, based on the belief that subjective wellbeing should be the main criterion for making government policy. The research programme has had a widespread impact on many UK government policies, including policies for measuring national wellbeing; for Improving Access to Psychological Therapies in the NHS; for improving life skills in schools; and for apprenticeships. CEP research has also had significant impact worldwide, including on the OECD's measurement programme, the World Economic Forum, and the United Nations (UN) process towards making happiness one of the `sustainable development goals' after 2015.
Essex research, conducted between 1994 and 2010, has provided a new way for the UK Government to measure income poverty, leading to a measure of persistent poverty being included in the Child Poverty Act 2010. The research has enriched policymakers' understanding of changes in inequality and provided a framework for the analysis of poverty dynamics. It has also changed the way in which the Joseph Rowntree Foundation approaches its research and policy work on poverty. A sub-strand of work, on how incomes change after couples separate, has informed policy development work by the charity Gingerbread.