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Carol Graham

The Brookings Institution and University of Maryland, USA, and IZA, Germany

I hope that research based on the intersection of economics and well-being research can shed some insights into important questions about labor market flexibility, the fiscal sustainability of pension systems, and public welfare more generally. It is an exciting new area of research which has direct relevance to policy in countries around the world

IZA World of Labor role

Author, Topic spokesperson

Current position

Leo Pasvolsky Senior Fellow, Global Economy and Development Program, The Brookings Institution; College Park Professor, School of Public Policy, University of Maryland, USA

Research interest

Poverty, inequality, public health, novel measures of well-being

Website

http://bit.ly/Graham_IZApage

Positions/functions as a policy advisor

Special Advisor to the Deputy Managing Director, International Monetary Fund, Fall, 2001; Special Advisor to the Executive Vice President, Inter-American Development Bank, 1997–1998

Past positions

Professor, School of Public Policy, University of Maryland; Visiting Professor, Department of Economics, Johns Hopkins University, USA

Qualifications

DPhil Concentration: Economic Development/Political Economy/Latin America, Oxford University, 1989

Selected publications

  • Happiness around the World: The Paradox of Happy Peasants and Miserable Millionaires. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2009.

  • The Pursuit of Happiness: An Economy of Well-Being. Washington, DC: The Brookings Institution Press, 2011.

  • “Does more money make you happier? Why so much debate?” Applied Research in Quality of Life 6:3 (2011).

  • “Adaptation amidst prosperity and adversity: Insights from happiness studies from around the world.” World Bank Research Observer 26:1 (2011).

  • “Happiness and health: Lessons and questions for public policy.” Health Affairs 27:1 (2008).

article(s)

  • Men without work: A global well-being and ill-being comparison

    The number of prime-age males outside the labor force is increasing worldwide, with worrying results

    Carol GrahamSergio Pinto, October 2019
    The global economy is full of progress paradoxes. Improvements in technology, reducing poverty, and increasing life expectancy coexist with persistent poverty in the poorest countries and increasing inequality and unhappiness in many wealthy ones. A key driver of the latter is the decline in the status and wages of low-skilled labor, with an increasing percentage of prime-aged men (and to a lesser extent women) simply dropping out of the labor force. The trend is starkest in the US, though frustration in this same cohort is also prevalent in Europe, and it is reflected in voting patterns in both contexts.
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  • Late-life work and well-being

    Flexible retirement may be one solution to the challenges of unemployment, aging populations, and public pension burdens

    Carol Graham, November 2014
    Flexible work time and retirement options are a potential solution for the challenges of unemployment, aging populations, and unsustainable pensions systems around the world. Voluntary part-time workers in Europe and the US are happier, experience less stress and anger, and are more satisfied with their jobs than other employees. Late-life workers, meanwhile, have higher levels of well-being than retirees. The feasibility of a policy that is based on more flexible work arrangements will vary across economies and sectors, but the ongoing debate about these multi-tiered challenges should at least consider such arrangements.
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