Theme 4: Welfare, Health and Well-being

Within the household welfare, health and well-being is distributed as a result of particular circumstances and choices made. Conflicts and perceived fairness of choices are additional factors in welfare distribution. The level of welfare is indicated by poverty or wealth, whereas well-being in a wider sense is not exclusively dependent on economic factors. Important consequences of consumption include health and consumer satisfaction. Special attention is paid to the (cost-) effectiveness of programmes aimed at improving health in low SES groups. Another research topic is aimed to disentangle the relationship between income, (private and public), happiness and related social indicators.

In Behavioural Economics, frequently the starting point is not the optimization of an abstract utility function. Rather, direct measures of health, satisfaction and well-being are related to context and preceding choices. Our research focuses on the effects of food consumption and activity schedule on overweight, care provision, and customer satisfaction.