There is also an increasingly influential debate about the impact of policy on wellbeing, with a range of ‘happiness league tables’ exploring which countries have the highest levels of wellbeing, including among children (Unicef 2007; Marks and Shah 2004). Above a certain level, economic growth does not produce an increase in wellbeing; on the contrary, there is a concern that economic growth strategies in both mature and emerging European market economies have damaging psycho-social side effects (Pickett et al 2006; Marks et al 2006; Eckersley 2005, 2006). 12 A number of commentators have argued that in the developed world, we.
