Productivity and well-being

Productivity and well-being. Productivity Puzzles Season 1, Episode 18 was released on Wednesday, 6 July 2022 

How can productivity benefit not just business and the economy, but also ourselves? What does it take for a society to grow and raise well-being? Can digital technology make us happier, as well as more productive?

In this episode, we look at which investments are needed to create more well-being and what role social factors, such as trust, play. The discussion is varied, with conversations about how we measure well-being effectively and what further data is needed to make informed choices, as well as a debate on whether digital technology has a positive impact on our lives and on our productivity as a whole.

The discussion covers recent work on the topic, which is published in the International Productivity Monitor, which is an online journal which The Productivity Institute publishes in conjunction with the Centre for the Study of Living Standards in Canada.

Our guests:

• Conal Smith, Senior Economist at the Institute for Governance and Policy Studies at Victoria University of Wellington
• Tim Hazledine, Professor of Economics at the University of Auckland Business School (retired)
• Diane Coyle, Bennett Professor of Public Policy at the University of Cambridge

• Read the transcript

For more information on the topic:

• The International Productivity Monitor, number 42, is available from The Productivity Institute resource centre with copies of all of the papers referenced in this episode.
• Well-being and Productivity: A Capital Stocks Approach, 2021, Conal Smith and Jaimie Legge.
• Trust, Deep Trust, Productivity and Well-being in 136 Countries, 2021 Tim Hazledine.
• Time Use, Productivity, and Household-Centric Measurement of Welfare in the Digital Economy, 2021, Diane Coyle and Leonard Nakamura.
• World Happiness Report, 2022.

To catch up with past episodes: