Andrew Oswald,
Professor of Economics and Behavioural Science

Andrew Oswald is a Professor of Economics and Behavioural Science at the University of Warwick. He is also an honorary Senior Research Fellow in the Wellbeing Research Centre at Manchester Harris College, University of Oxford, and Chair of the IZA Network Advisory Panel at the IZA Institute in Bonn. His research is principally in applied economics and quantitative social science. It includes work on the empirical study of job satisfaction, human happiness, mental health, pain and the business cycle, and labour productivity. He serves on the board of editors of Science. Previously at Oxford and the London School of Economics, with spells as Lecturer, Princeton University (1983-4); De Walt Ankeny Professor of Economics, Dartmouth College (1989-91); Jacob Wertheim Fellow, Harvard University (2005); Visiting Fellow, Cornell University (2008); Research Director, IZA Bonn (2011-12); Visiting Fellow, University of Zurich (2016); Visiting Fellow, Yale University (2016). He is an ISI Highly-Cited Researcher.

I am a supporter of the San Francisco Declaration, recently agreed by a large group of editors and scientists, which is that "journal impact factors should not be used as a surrogate measure of the quality of individual research articles, to assess an individual scientist's contributions, or in hiring, promotion, or funding decisions." PDF here

Latest papers below



"Temperature Variability and Natural Disasters: Evidence for Economists,
Climate Researchers, and Policy-Makers."

with Aatishya Mohanty, Nattavudh Powdthavee and, Cheng Keat Tang.
October 2024


"Inequality, well-being, and the problem of the unknown reporting function."
with Caspar Kaiser,
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the USA, December 2022


"The Scientific Value of Numerical Measures of Human Feelings."
with Caspar Kaiser,
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the USA, November 2022


"Climate Change and Policy Action."
Climate talk to OECD Presentation
September 20222


"Why Do Relatively Few Economists Work on Climate Change? A Survey."
with Nico Pestel, IZA Discusion Paper Series.


"Physical Pain, Gender, and the State of the Economy in 146 Nations."
with Lucía Macchiaa, Social Science & Medicine.


"It's time for cost-benefit analysis of restrictions."
Letter Financial Times, November 3rd 2020.


"Trends in Extreme Distress in the USA, 1993-2019"
with David G. Blanchflower, American Journal of Public Health, September 2020.
"A Graph of Extreme Distress Through Time in the USA"

Appendix


"Age, Death Risk, and the Design of an Exit Strategy: A Guide for Policymakers and for Citizens Who Want to Stay Alive"
with Nattavudh Powdthavee, April 2020.
PDF Version
Word Version

Deaths by Age in England and Wales Last Week (ONS May 5th)
Letter: "Driving licence makes it possible to check a young person's age"
with Nattavudh Powdthavee, Financial Times, April 2020.


"Why does the economics of climate change matter so much, and why has the engagement of economists been so weak?"
with Nicholas Stern, Forthcoming in the Royal Economic Society Newsletter September 2019


"The best gauge of civic wellbeing is not GDP."
Letters, Financial Times, Friday 21, June 2019


"Was Brexit Triggered by the Old and Unhappy? Or by Financial Feelings?"
with Federica Liberini, Eugenio Proto and Michela Redoano,
Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization in 2019.


"How Common are Bad Bosses?"
with Benjamin Artz and Amanda H Goodall, September 2018


"Unhappiness and Pain in Modern America: A Review Essay."
with David G. Blanchflower, forthcoming in the Journal of Economic Literature.


"How Much Should University Vice-Chancellors Be Paid?"
September 2017. Newspaper article forthcoming in the Times Higher Education.


"Female Babies and Risk-Aversion: Causal Evidence from Hospital Wards",
with Ganna Pogrebna and David Haig, published in the Journal of Health Economics, 2018.


"Understanding Happiness",
University of Warwick, 2017


"If Your Boss Could Do Your Job, You're More Likely to Be Happy at Work"
Benjamin Artz , Amanda Goodall & Andrew J. Oswald. Harvard Business Review (digital article)
December 29, 2016


"Do Women Ask?"
Benjamin Artz, Amanda H. Goodall, and Andrew J. Oswald, forthcoming in Industrial Relations: A Journal of Economy and Society, 2018.


"Evolution of Well-being and Happiness after Increases in the Consumption of Fruit and Vegetables"
(with Redzo Mujcic). Published in American Journal of Public Health, 2016.
Supplementary Figures and Tables for the AJPH paper"
"A Note on a Possible Link Between Fruit and Vegetable Consumption and Reduced Risk of Depression" : Unpublished manuscript, July 2016, Redzo Mujcica and Andrew J. Oswaldb


"Antidepressants and Age: A New Form of Evidence for U-Shaped Well-being Through Life"
(with D. Blanchflower). Published in the Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization, 2016.


"Happiness and Productivity" with Eugenio Proto, and Daniel Sgroi, University of Warwick, UK, and IZA Bonn, Germany, March 2014. Published in the Journal of Labor Economics, 2015.

"National Well-being Policy and a Weighted Approach to Human Feelings" with Gus O'Donnell. Published in the journal Ecological Economics, 2015.

"Boss Competence and Worker Well-being"with Benjamin Artz and Amanda H Goodall. Published in Industrial and Labor Relations Review 2017
.

"Longitudinal Evidence for a Midlife Nadir in Human Well-being: Results from Four Data Sets,"
with Terence C. Cheng and Nattavudh Powdthavee. Published in Economic Journal 2017.

"National Happiness and Genetic Distance: A Cautious Exploration" with Eugenio Proto. Published in Economic Journal 2017.
Recent paper:

"How should peer-review panels behave?"
with Daniel Sgroi, Economic Journal.

Does High Home-Ownership Impair the Labor Market?
David G. Blanchflower and Andrew J. Oswald, May 2013

Things I would have found it useful to have been told when I was a young researcher:
Tuesday April 30 2013 Event on Publishing Thoughts and Advice for Young Faculty: Some Notes
Recent paper:

"Happiness as a driver of risk-avoiding behavior: Theory and an empirical study of seatbelt wearing and automobile accidents",
Robert J B Goudie, Sach Mukherjee, JanEmmanuel De Neve, Steven Wu and Andrew J. Oswald
PDF
Recent paper:

"Evidence for a midlife crisis in great apes consistent with the U-shape in human well-being",
Alexander Weiss, James E. King, Miho Inoue-Murayama, Tetsuro Matsuzawa, and Andrew J. Oswald
Published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the USA, 2012.
PDF

The Happiness of Apes through Life
Larger JPEG (right click and 'save as' to download)

Contact

Email : andrew.oswald@warwick.ac.uk

Address : Dept of Economics, University of Warwick, Coventry CV4 7AL. United Kingdom.

Press : Contact : Andrew Oswald +44 7876 217717
or Warwick U comms – Peter Dunn Phone: +44-2476-523708 Mobile: +44 7767 655860 Email: p.j.dunn@warwick.ac.uk

Richard Easterlin, Andrew Oswald and Andrew Clark at Warwick event.


Discussing the topic: Is Happiness the New GDP? World Government Summit, Dubai, February 2017

 
Andrew Oswald presenting a lecture on the economics of happiness in the United Arab Emirates 2016.

 
Andrew Oswald speaking on ageing at the Nobel Week Dialogue in Stockholm, December 2014.
Pictured with Johanna Wallenius (University of Stockholm), Eric Maskin (Harvard), Dan McFadden (Berkeley), David Bloom (Harvard School of Public Health), and Sarah Harper (Oxford).


Oswald happiness: The 2013 award of an honorary doctorate from the University of Basel.



Photos from the 2012 EALE conference in Bonn at which Sandra Black was a keynote speaker
and Richard Blundell received the IZA Prize

EALE conference in Bonn

EALE conference in Bonn
David and me at Spurs
Scientific evidence reveals that grandchildren make people happier