Happiness and Productivity

Abstract

Some firms say they care about the well-being and "happiness" of their employees. But are such claims hype or scientific good sense? We provide evidence, for a classic piece rate setting, that happiness makes people more productive. In three different styles of experiment, randomly selected individuals are made happier. The treated individuals have approximately 12% greater productivity. A fourth experiment studies major real-world shocks ðbereavement and family illnessÞ. Lower happiness is systematically associated with lower productivity. These different forms of evidence, with complementary strengths and weaknesses, are consistent with the existence of a causal link between human well-being and human performance.

Wellbeing and Society: Towards Quantification of the Co-benefits of Wellbeing

“…Cunningham (1988) carries out "mood induction" experiments, where joy and depression were induced using statements with a positive or negative message projected on a screen for a few seconds. Oswald et al (2015) instead uses short videos and treats including candy and drinks to analyse whether mood affects productivity. Along similar lines, Challen et al (2011) analyse the effect of the UK Resilience Programme (a programme aimed at developing children psychological wellbeing and carried out in a number of Local Authorities in the UK) and use longitudinal data to compare the performance of children who underwent the programme with the performance of those who did not.…”

Shifting Priorities in Degrowth Research: An Argument for the Centrality of Human Needs

“…And indeed, according to Oswald et al (2008) workers are more productive when they feel happy, apparently by as much an additional 12 percent of output.…”

¿Cuánto vale tu felicidad?

“…Uno de los pocos encabezados de la OCDE en los que México tiene el primer lugar es la cantidad de horas transcurridas en el sitio de trabajo, superando a países como Japón y Corea (OCDE, 2017b). Esta actitud, que también predomina en algunos ambientes universitarios, termina siendo más una pose que una pauta de rendimiento, pues hay estudios que demuestran cómo después de 50 horas a la semana la productividad decrece (por ejemplo, Pencavel, 2015), mientras que aumenta con gente feliz y descansada (Oswald, Proto y Sgroi, 2015). El argumento es muy claro para promover la noción de placer con relación al proceso de aprendizaje.…”