Unjournal 'pivotal questions'
By our above standards, this is far too broadly defined; however, there is a wealth of recent (empirical, theoretical, and methodological) work on this; some of which (e.g., ‘WELLBYs’) seems to be influencing the funding, policies and agendas at high-impact orgs. Elicit.org (free version) summarizes the findings from the ‘top-4’ recent papers:
Recent research highlights the complexity of measuring wellbeing, emphasizing its multidimensional nature. Studies have identified inconsistencies in defining and measuring wellbeing among university students in the UK, with a focus on subjective experiences and mental health (Dodd et al., 2021). Global trends analysis reveals distinct patterns in flourishing across geography, time, and age, suggesting the need for comprehensive measures beyond single-item assessments (Shiba et al., 2022). Scholars argue for well-being indicators that capture physical, social, and mental conditions, as well as access to opportunities and resources (Lijadi, 2023). The concept of "Well-Being Capital" proposes integrating multidimensional wellbeing indicators with economic measures to better reflect a country's performance and inform public policy (Bayraktar, 2022). These studies collectively emphasize the importance of considering subjective experiences, cultural factors, and ecological embeddedness when measuring individual and aggregate wellbeing, moving beyond traditional economic indicators like GDP.
This suggests a large set of more targeted questions, including conceptual questions, psychometric issues, normative economic theory, and empirical questions. But I also suspect that 80k and their funders would want to reframe this question in a more targetted way. They may be particularly interested in comparing a specific set of measures that they could actually source and use for making their decisions. They may be more focused on well-being measures that have been calibrated for individuals in extreme poverty, or suffering from painful diseases. They may only be interested in a small subset of theoretical concerns; perhaps only those that could be adapted to a cost-benefit framework.
^[Asking it to “...please focus on recent work in economics and decision theory, and measurements that have been used for low and middle-income countries.” yields [excerpted]
Recent research … aim[s] to move beyond traditional economic indicators like GDP. The Global Index of Wellbeing (GLOWING) proposes a simple, meaningful measure using secondary ecological data (Elliott et al., 2017). The Multidimensional Wellbeing Index for Peru (MWI-P) incorporates 12 dimensions based on what people value, revealing disparities among subgroups (Clausen & Barrantes, 2022). Another approach suggests using the Condorcet median to aggregate non-comparable wellbeing facets into a robust ranking (Boccard, 2017). New methods for measuring welfare include stated preferences over aspects of wellbeing, life-satisfaction scales, and the WELLBY approach, as well as comprehensive frameworks like Bhutan's Gross National Happiness Index (Cooper et al., 2023).]
This seems promising as the basis for a ‘research prioritization stream’. We would want to build a specific set of representative questions and applications as well as some counterexamples (‘questions we are less interested in’), and then we could make a specific drive to source and evaluate work in this area.