Inflation and Wellbeing

In June 2022, and in response to the global price increases leading to inflation, members of the World Wellbeing Panel were asked for their views on two statements relating to the impact that inflation has on our wellbeing.

The two statements were as follows:

Statement 1: The rise in global inflation will impact negatively on the wellbeing of the majority of people in affected countries.

Statement 2: Policy responses to combat the rise in global inflation will impact negatively on the wellbeing of the majority of people in affected countries.

Response options for each statement were: “completely agree”, “agree”, “neither agree nor disagree”, “disagree”, “completely disagree”.

There was an almost full agreement with statement 1, 19 of our panelists agreed or completely agreed with the statement, while only one opted for “neither agree nor disagree”. This question has generated more consensus among our panelists than we typically see.

List of WWP respondents

• Chris Barrington-Leigh, McGill University, (USA)
• Tony Beatton, Queensland University of Technology, (Australia)
• Leonardo Becchetti, University of Rome Tor Vergata, (Italy)
• Daniel Benjamin, University of Southern California, (USA)
• Martin Binder, Bard College Berlin, (Germany)
• Ada Ferrer-i-Carbonell, Institute for Economic Analysis (IAE-CSIC) and Barcelona School of Economics (Spain)
• Gigi Foster, University of New South Wales, (Australia)
• Bruno Frey, University of Basel, (Switzerland)
• Paul Frijters, London School of Economics, (United Kingdom)
• Arthur Grimes, Victoria University of Wellington, (New Zealand)
• Arie Kapteyn, University of Southern California, (USA)
• Andreas Knab, University of Magdeburg, (Germany)
• Maurizio Pugno, University of Cassino, (Italy)
• Francesco Sarracino, STATEC Research, National Statistical Office of Luxembourg (Luxembourg)
• Daniel Sgroi, University of Warwick, (United Kingdom)
• Wenceslao Unanue, Universidad Adolfo Ibáñez, (Chile)
• Ruut Veenhoven, Erasmus University Rotterdam, (Netherlands)
• Heinz Welsch, University of Oldenburg, (Germany)
• Mark Wooden, University of Melbourne, (Australia)
• Stephen Wu, Hamilton College, (USA)

About the World Wellbeing Panel