Abstract
We are delighted to introduce the Journal of Wellbeing Economics (JWELL), an outlet for the community of economists and social scientists committed to understanding human wellbeing, particularly how people experience and evaluate their lives-as-a-whole.
Over the past three decades, research on subjective wellbeing—encompassing happiness, life satisfaction, and affect—has moved from the periphery to the core of debates about welfare, policy, and development. This shift reflects a growing awareness that economic performance and human experience, while related, are not synonymous, and that understanding how people actually experience their lives provides valuable information for public policy.
If one had to identify the intellectual starting point, Easterlin (1974) is usually credited with launching wellbeing economics. Easterlin’s 1974 paper “Does Economic Growth Improve the Human Lot?” introduced what became known as the Easterlin Paradox: within a country, richer individuals report higher life satisfaction than poorer individuals, yet over time, increases in national income do not necessarily raise average happiness. The field of wellbeing economics then expanded through the seminal works of economists and social scientists in the 1990s and 2000s. 1 Today, wellbeing economics has evolved into a central component of well-being research, influencing national statistics, cost–benefit analysis, and global policy frameworks.
Wellbeing economics has expanded rapidly in both scope and methodological sophistication. Economists now make distinctive contributions to the science of wellbeing by identifying the causal drivers and economic consequences of life satisfaction and affect, improving the measurement and valuation of wellbeing outcomes, embedding wellbeing evidence into formal models of behavior and choice, and integrating wellbeing metrics into welfare analysis and policy evaluation. In doing so, economists have strengthened the empirical and normative foundations of wellbeing research, helping to translate subjective measures into tools for theory building and policy design, and expanding our understanding of human nature.
Yet much of this scholarship appears in interdisciplinary outlets such as the Journal of Happiness Studies, Social Indicators Research, and Applied Research in Quality of Life. Respected economics journals, including Ecological Economics, Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Journal of Economic Psychology, Journal of Population Economics, and Review of Income and Wealth, occasionally publish work in this area, but none is dedicated to the systematic development of wellbeing-informed economic thinking.
At a time when governments, international organizations, and civil society actors are increasingly incorporating wellbeing metrics into decision-making, the field requires a clear intellectual home within economics. JWELL is founded to meet that need. The journal provides an economics-led but interdisciplinary platform for research that integrates wellbeing measures with economic theory, rigorous methods, and policy design. We welcome contributions that advance conceptual foundations, improve measurement, explore behavioral, social and institutional mechanisms, and inform public policy grounded in the lived experience of individuals and communities.
By fostering dialogue across subfields and disciplines, JWELL aims to support the next generation of economics: one that takes seriously what people have, what they share, and how they experience life.
Scope
JWELL is founded on a simple premise: that the ultimate purpose of economic inquiry is to understand and contribute to a greater happiness for a greater number of people. While economics has long provided indispensable tools for analyzing markets, incentives, and growth, the time has come to place human experience at the center of economic analysis.
This journal will publish theoretical, empirical, and policy-oriented research that deepens our understanding of how economic behavior, institutions, and public policies influence wellbeing. We place particular emphasis on subjective wellbeing, mental health and affect as primary outcome measures, reflecting the growing consensus that individuals’ own evaluations are indispensable for welfare analysis and for understanding the choices people make. At the same time, we are open to complementary normative perspectives, including objective list theories, the capability and welfarist approaches, recognizing that a vibrant field benefits from conceptual pluralism grounded in analytical rigor.
We welcome work that advances the measurement and valuation of wellbeing and life satisfaction; that rethinks macroeconomic performance and welfare beyond GDP; that explores behavioral and experimental foundations of happiness and choice; that examines labor, health, and education through a wellbeing lens; and that evaluates the relationship between wellbeing and issues such as trade, productivity, innovation, technology, and entrepreneurship. We encourage research on inequality, distribution, and fairness in wellbeing outcomes, as well as studies assessing the wellbeing impacts of public policies and institutional arrangements. We also seek contributions that integrate wellbeing metrics into environmental and climate economics, and that push forward methodological frontiers in wellbeing econometrics and causal inference.
JWELL is intended as a home as well as a bridge. It offers a dedicated venue within economics for research that integrates subjective wellbeing metrics with economic theory, econometric innovation, and policy design. At the same time, it aims to contribute to a renewed welfare economics by fostering a dialogue across disciplines, engaging with psychology, sociology, public health, political science, and philosophy, to enrich economic thinking about the good life.
Article Types and Issues
JWELL has two editors-in-chief and an editorial board with a deliberate commitment to quality, coherence, and sustainable journal growth.
Each issue may include thematic sections curated by guest editors, including members of the editorial board, in response to targeted Calls for Papers. These focused collections will enable JWELL to engage directly with emerging debates, methodological innovations, and pressing policy challenges. By combining open submissions with strategically developed thematic clusters, the journal aims to both reflect and shape the evolving research agenda in wellbeing economics.
All Research Article, Review Article, and Research Note submissions will undergo an initial editorial screening followed by rigorous, double anonymized peer review. The review process is designed to uphold the highest academic standards while remaining constructive and fair. The principal criterion guiding editorial decisions is whether a manuscript advances systematic knowledge on important substantive, theoretical, or methodological questions within wellbeing economics.
JWELL will publish several types of contributions, each serving a distinct function in the development of the field. Research Articles will constitute the core of the journal. These papers, whether empirical, theoretical, or integrative, are expected to make substantial and significant contributions that advance knowledge in meaningful ways. Research Articles must not exceed 10,000 words.
Review Articles will provide comprehensive, balanced, and authoritative coverage of timely or contested topics. By synthesizing existing evidence and clarifying conceptual or methodological debates, they will help define future research directions. Systematic reviews should follow established reporting standards, and all Review Articles are subject to the same 10,000-word limit to ensure depth combined with clarity and focus.
Research Notes will offer a venue for concise and timely contributions. Limited to 4,000 words, these articles may present focused empirical findings, pilot studies, methodological innovations, or replications that advance specific academic discussions. This format supports the rapid dissemination of carefully executed research that contributes to cumulative knowledge.
Finally, JWELL will publish invited Viewpoints. These shorter contributions, reviewed by the editors and limited to 4,000 words, will allow wellbeing scholars to reflect on current issues, emerging developments, or conceptual challenges within their areas of expertise. Viewpoints are intended to stimulate debate and intellectual exchange at important junctures in the field.
Concluding Remarks
JWELL was born to provide a dedicated home for scholarship in wellbeing economics, bringing together work that is analytically rigorous, empirically grounded, and normatively engaged. It will publish research that aims to generate new academic insights, and practical tools that policymakers, business leaders, and institutional decision-makers can use to enhance the wellbeing of the individuals and communities they serve.
Our aspiration is for JWELL to become a leading outlet within economics, shaping debates about welfare, progress, and public policy, while supporting and contributing to a thriving global community of scholars committed to advancing the science and economics of wellbeing.
