Minor Economics of Well-Being
This course connects economics and the social sciences with its ultimate purpose: improving human well-being. This course is for Bachelor-3 students from Erasmus University Rotterdam, Leiden University, and Delft University.
Throughout this interdisciplinary minor, essential questions are covered such as:
- How can we shape an economy and society that truly enables people to live happier and healthier lives?
- How to create thriving organizations with happy and healthy employees?
- Do people make economic and non-economic choices that truly serve their well-being?
- How can people optimize their quality of life?
- How can well-being become the driving force behind economic and social progress?
This course embraces the paradigm shift in economics toward a “Beyond GDP” vision, moving away from the traditional narrow focus on economic growth and income maximization and toward a broader focus on people’s well-being. This shift reflects the growing recognition that today’s challenges require a wider lens that better captures the full reality of what matters for people and societies in the 21st century. For this purpose, this course connects economic behavior and phenomena to insights from across the social sciences, including applied economics (e.g. behavioral economics, happiness economics, and health economics), psychology, sociology, and business studies. The course both broadens the perspective of economists and offers an ideal introduction to economics for non-economists. Both objective and subjective well-being outcomes are covered, with a focus on subjective well-being (happiness) and health.
The course has the following five modules:
- Well-being: An introduction
- Empirical analyses of well-being
- Work and well-being
- Health and well-being
- Society and well-being
The graded assessments focus on (1) developing ideas and interventions to improve well-being, (2) developing new insights on well-being using empirical data, and (3) critically reflecting on existing policies and practices. Students make a real impact by working with companies on meaningful business cases.
This course provides future economists, policy-makers, business leaders, HR specialists, psychologists, and related professions with fundamental expertise in a world where well-being has become a primary theme in organizational and public policies. The course material is also relevant on a more personal level, as personal well-being is important in its own right and instrumental in reaching other goals in life such as a successful career.
Thesis supervision
EHERO supervises Bachelor's and Master's theses for the Erasmus School of Economics.
International courses
EHERO is involved in well-being related-courses for partners and partner universities in South Africa, Saudi Arabia, and Romania.
EHERO is open to organizing or contributing to similar courses and thesis supervision for educational institutions within and outside the Netherlands. For our international course offer, see https://www.eur.nl/ehero/ehero-international