Towards the Wellbeing Economy

The world faces a great number of challenges, from the immediate Covid-19 pandemic and the more long-term – but no less urgent – climate crisis and ecological breakdown, to growing inequality, insecurity, and social polarisation. The ideas of yesterday no longer provide the solutions for the problems we face today. As a result, we are living through a twice-in-a-century change in economic thinking and policy making, also known as a paradigm shift: we are moving away from neoliberal market ideas and a focus on narrow economic growth, towards an economy centred on enhancing human wellbeing in a sustainable, equitable and resilient way – also known as the Wellbeing Economy. The Think Tank of young economists, of the Future Markets Consultation led by former Dutch Prime Minister prof. Jan-Peter Balkenende and prof. Govert Buijs, has investigated how we can move towards the Wellbeing Economy. The young economists, Sam de Muijnck, Elisa Terragno Bogliaccini and Jim R. Surie, furthermore explored what the paradigm shift means for the public sector, financial sector and environmental policy.