The WELLBY: a new measure of social value and progress

Abstract

We introduce the WELLBY, a new measure of social value and progress, which can contribute to the assessment of progress towards the wellbeing of the economy and steer towards activities with the most wellbeing per financial resources invested. After providing a short rationale for the WELLBY, we give a definition and an overview of its properties. We then show how WELLBYs can help decision-makers with ex-ante policy appraisals and deliver a practical example of a youth traineeship programme. We also discuss how coefficients from ex-post wellbeing policy evaluations are now being collected as part of social value banks around the world, feeding into future appraisals. Finally, we illustrate how WELLBYs can be used to measure social progress overall, going beyond GDP.