In this landmark book, Richard Layard shows that there is a paradox at the heart of our lives. Most people want more income. Yet as societies become richer, they do not become happier. This is not just anecdotally true, it is the story told by countless pieces of scientific research. We now have sophisticated ways of measuring how happy people are, and all the evidence shows that on average people have grown no happier in the last fifty years, even as average incomes have more than doubled. In fact, the First World has more depression, more alcoholism and more crime than fifty years ago. This paradox is true of Britain, the United States, continental Europe, and Japan. What is going on?

Happiness 1/ed: Lessons From A New Science

Business & Money

Layard, Richard

Economics

Penguin Uk

Every day the newspapers lament the problems facing our children - broken homes, pressures to eat and drink, the stress of exams. The same issues are discussed in every pub and at every dinner party. But is life really more difficult for children than it was, and if so why? And how can we make it better? This book, which is a result of a two year investigation by the Children's Society and draws upon the work of the UK's leading experts in many fields, explores the main stresses and influences to which every child is exposed - family, friends, youth culture, values, and schooling, and will make recommendations as to how we can improve the upbringing of our children. It tackles issues which affect every child, whatever their background, and questions and provides solutions to the belief that life has become so extraordinarily difficult for children in general. The experts make 30 specific recommendations, written not from the point of view of academics, but for the general reader - above all for parents and teachers. We expect publication to be a major event and the centre of widespread media attention.

Good Childhood,A

Parenting & Relationships

et.al.

Parenting

There is a paradox at the heart of our lives. We all want more money, but as societies become richer, they do not become happier. This is not speculation: It's the story told by countless pieces of scientific research. We now have sophisticated ways of measuring how happy people are, and all the evidence shows that on average people have grown no happier in the last fifty years, even as average incomes have more than doubled.
The central question the great economist Richard Layard asks in Happiness is this: If we really wanted to be happier, what would we do differently? First we'd have to see clearly what conditions generate happiness and then bend all our efforts toward producing them. That is what this book is about-the causes of happiness and the means we have to effect it.
Until recently there was too little evidence to give a good answer to this essential question, but, Layard shows us, thanks to the integrated insights of psychology, sociology, applied economics, and other fields, we can now reach some firm conclusions, conclusions that will surprise you. Happiness is an illuminating road map, grounded in hard research, to a better, happier life for us all.

Happiness: Lessons from a New Science

Penguin Publishing Group

In this broad survey of the subject of unemployment, the authors consider a number of key issues, such as why unemployment is so high and why it fluctuates so wildly; how unemployment affects inflation; and whether full employment can ever be combined with price stability. This book provides answers and explains the puzzling postwar history of the OECD countries. It integrates macroeconomics with a detailed micro-analysis of the labour market and shows how unemployment and inflation are affected by systems wage bargaining and unemployment insurance. For each issue it develops new relevant theory, followed by extensive empirical analysis, drawing on material from both Europe and America. The authors are leading world experts on the subject, and the book gives their definitive treatment. It is based largely on new research, but also incorporates the best of existing knowledge of economics. The rest of the book provides key elements for courses in macroeconomics and labour economics at advanced undergraduate levels. The basic aim of the book, however, is to provide the basis for better policy. As the book shows by learning from theory and experience we can greatly reduce the waste and misery of high unemployment. It should be a lasting contribution and a major source of reference for both scholars and students.

Unemployment: Macroeconomic Performance and the Labour Market

Nickell, Stephen

dackman, Richard

Oxford University Press

Written by leading experts in the field, this book provides a broad survey of unemployment. Explaining what has happened to employment levels in the industrialized countries in the 1970s and 1980s, the authors discuss why unemployment is so high and why it has fluctuated so wildly, how unemployment affects inflation, and whether full employment can ever be combined with price stability. For each issue it develops a relevant theory, followed by extensive empirical analysis, drawing on material from both Europe and America.

In this study, a leading expert sheds light on the reasons for high unemployment in Britain and various ways it can be reduced. Analyzing the roots of unemployment in the first half of the book, Layard provides a definitive statement of the modern theory of unemployment and presents a mass of evidence about what causes unemployment in Britain. He then proposes practical measures to reduce unemployment without raising inflation, such as increasing the demand for goods and services that the unemployed can supply, and suggests implementing a tax-based incomes policy to ensure that inflation stays low.

How to Beat Unemployment

Politics & Social Sciences

Social Sciences

The Unemployment Crisis

This fully revised and up-dated abridgement of the well-established 1991 book, Unemployment: Macroeconomic Performance and the Labour Market is now an entirely accessible textbook on unemployment. It offers a wide-ranging international analysis of labor market institutions, recent unemployment experience, and governmental policies. The authors question the inevitability of present levels of unemployment in the Western world, and the view that there exists a trade-off between price stability and unemployment levels. This volume presents a lucid and comprehensive explanation of the reasons for unemployment, the existence of an average level, and the reasons why unemployment levels often fluctuate. The authors have created a general framework for their analysis that fully integrates macroeconomic theory with a detailed look at the microeconomic workings of the labor market. They effectively incorporate the latest theoretical research on topics such as insider-outsider theories and hysteresis in labor markets, and reveal the role of factors such as union bargaining, efficiency wages, and labor practices to combat unemployment. Students will find this book essential because of its comprehensive coverage of unemployment in the international arena and its clear exposition.

Jackman, Richard

Layard, Nickell and Jackman have fully revised and updated part of their well-established 1991 book - Unemployment: Macroeconomic Performance and the Labour Market - to create a shorter and entirely accessible undergraduate textbook on unemployment. The authors question the inevitability of present levels of unemployment in the Western world, and the view that there exists a trade-off between price stability and unemployment levels. Students are presented with a lucid and comprehensive explanation of the reasons for unemployment, the existence of an average level, and the reasons why unemployment levels often fluctuate. The authors have created a general framework of analysis which fully integrates macroeconomic theory with a detailed look at the microeconomic workings of the labour market. This is illuminated by up-to-the-minute empirical evidence relating to all OECD countries. This book also incorporates the latest theoretical thinking on topics such as 'insider-outsider' theories, and hysteresis in labour markets, as well as revealing the role of factors such as union bargaining, efficiency wages, benefits, and mismatch. The final part authoritatively weighs up various governmental practices to combat unemployment, and reveals the different institutions and recent experiences of OECD countries. Students will find this book essential partly because it is very clearly written. The authors have used algebra in parts, but the exposition can be followed without equations, and they also present key findings geometrically. Students and tutors will find a list of discussion questions at the end useful, and a bibliography provides further reading for advanced students.

Why is unemployment higher in some countries than others? Why does it fluctuate between decades? Why are some people at greater risk than others? Layard and Nickell have worked on these issues for thirty years. Their famous model, first published in 1986, is now used throughout the world. It asserts that unemployment must be high enough to reduce the real wages for which workers settle to the level justified by productivity. So what affects 'wage push'? The authors showed early on that the key factors affecting 'wage push' are how unemployed workers are treated and how wages are negotiated. If unemployed people get benefits without being required to accept jobs, vacancies go unfilled and mass unemployment results. The solution is welfare-to-work policies like those now introduced in most parts of the world. The authors have proposed these policies for the last twenty-five years in a series of key articles reproduced in this book. Their original analysis explains the subsequent movement of unemployment over the last two decades. They conclude the book with a new chapter on what should be done in the recession: no-one, they say, should be given unemployment benefit beyond a year, after which they should be offered work.

Combatting Unemployment (IZA Prize in Labor Economics)

Nickell, Stephen J.

Human Resources

Why has unemployment fallen in some countries and not in others? This classic book is now re-issued with an updated introduction, which shows how well the analysis explains recent developments. The book is both a textbook and an original monograph in which the authors set out their analytic framework which has now become standard in some countries. The book both explains unemployment and shows how it can be reduced. It contains a long overview chapter which is accessible to any non-specialist with an elementary knowledge of economics.

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Layard, Richard. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Books by Layard, Richard

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Layard, Richard. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Happiness 1/ed: Lessons From A New Science

Good Childhood,A

Happiness: Lessons from a New Science

Unemployment: Macroeconomic Performance and the Labour Market

Unemployment: Macroeconomic Performance and the Labour Market

How to Beat Unemployment

The Unemployment Crisis

The Unemployment Crisis

Combatting Unemployment (IZA Prize in Labor Economics)

Unemployment: Macroeconomic Performance and the Labour Market