CHANSE WB-90: WELLMOD ("A Wellbeing Micro-Simulation Model to Enhance Wellbeing for the Future")

How can we appraise any given policy – across policy domains and sectors (including policies that are not directly related to wellbeing, e.g. trade policy) – from a wellbeing perspective?
There are increasing calls by international organisations, governments, and the general public to put the wellbeing of the people at the heart of policy design. However, there currently exists no framework or method of how to put these calls into practice. We therefore propose to develop a micro-simulation model to evaluate the impacts of a variety of different policies on both lifetime wellbeing and the public purse. It will be developed in close cooperation with its end users, involving think tanks and policy-makers at EU/European and national levels. This practical tool will then allow policy-makers to select those policies that yield the highest wellbeing benefit per cost, and so maximise wellbeing in society subject to budget constraints.
From our experience, the lack of such a model is one major reason why wellbeing is insufficiently considered by policy-makers and civil servants – they currently do not have the practical tools for policy appraisals using wellbeing data.
By developing a micro-simulation model, our ultimate goal is to create a public good that will influence the way in which policy-makers think about and select their priorities, by providing the thought frameworks, methodology and tool, and technical standards required to do so. The model will be handed over to the policy and academic communities as an open-source public good (similar to EUROMOD), in order for them to develop it further.