
Jan-Emmanuel De Neve
Professor of Economics and Behavioural Science
- jan-emmanuel.deneve@sbs.ox.ac.uk
Saïd Business School
University of Oxford
Park End Street
Oxford
OX1 1HP
Profile
Jan's research interests are in behavioural economics, public policy and human wellbeing. He is the Director of the Wellbeing Research Centre.
His research has been published in academic outlets such as Science, Nature, The Review of Economics and Statistics, Journal of Political Economy, Psychological Science, The British Medical Journal, and The Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS). The underlying theme throughout his research is the study of human wellbeing. This ongoing research agenda has led to new insights in the relationship between happiness and income, productivity, economic growth, and inequality. His research was selected among 'The Management Ideas that Mattered Most' by the Harvard Business Review and he was awarded the inaugural Ruut Veenhoven Award for his contributions to the scientific study of happiness.
Jan has joined John Helliwell, Richard Layard, and Jeffrey Sachs as an Editor of the World Happiness Report. He is a frequent advisor to governments and businesses including the Gallup Organization and currently guides the development of the world’s largest study on wellbeing at work for the global job search site Indeed with over 5 million surveys completed so far.
Prior to joining Oxford, Jan was Assistant Professor in Political Economy and Behavioural Science at University College London and a Visiting Professor in Economics and Political Science at INSEAD. He is affiliated with the Centre for Economic Performance at LSE and is a faculty associate of both the Department of Economics and the Department of Politics at Oxford.
Jan obtained his PhD from the London School of Economics and was a Fulbright Scholar at Harvard University. His research and commentary regularly feature in the media, including in The Economist, the Financial Times, the Harvard Business Review, and on the BBC. He is a frequent speaker at academic and non-academic conferences, including at PopTech and TED.
Alongside his role at Saïd Business School, Jan is the KSI Fellow and Vice-Principal of Harris Manchester College at the University of Oxford.
- View Jan's CV
- View Jan's Google Scholar Page
Research
Recent publications and work in progress:
- ‘Wellbeing: Science and Policy’ (with Richard Layard) Cambridge University Press (under contract 12/2021)
- 'The SDGs and human well-being: A global analysis of synergies, trade-offs, and regional differences' (with Jeffrey Sachs) Scientific Reports
- 'Does Employee Happiness have an Impact on Productivity?’ (with Clement Bellet and George Ward) R&R at Management Science
- 'Employee wellbeing, productivity, and firm performance’ (with Chris Krekel and George Ward)
- 'Taking a wellbeing years approach to policy choice' (with Andrew Clark, Christian Krekel, Richard Layard, and Gus O’Donnell) The British Medical Journal
- 'Are happier people more compliant? Global evidence from three large-scale surveys during Covid-19 lockdowns' (with Chris Krekel, Sarah Swanke and Daisy Fancourt)
- 'How to improve tax compliance? Evidence from population-wide experiments in Belgium’(with Clement Imbert, Maarten Luts, Johannes Spinnewijn, and Teodora Tsankova) Journal of Political Economy
- '(Un)Happiness and voting in US Presidential elections' (with George Ward, Lyle Ungar , and Johannes Eichstaedt) Journal of Personality and Social Psychology
- 'Bowling with Trump: Economic anxiety, racial identification, and well-being in the 2016 Presidential election' (with Mark Fabian and Robert Breunig)
- 'The motivational cost of inequality: Opportunity gaps reduce the willingness to work’ (with Filip Gesiarz and Tali Sharot) PLOS One
- 'Cities and happiness: A global ranking and analysis' (with Christian Krekel)
- 'A local community course to raise mental wellbeing and pro-sociality: Evidence from a randomised controlled trial' (with Chris Krekel, Daisy Fancourt, and Richard Layard) Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization
- ‘Mental health during the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic: A review and recommendations for moving forward’ (with Lara Aknin, Elizabeth Dunn, Daisy Fancourt, et al) Perspectives on Psychological Science
- 'Machine learning and human wellbeing' (with Andrew Clark, Conchita D’Ambrosio, Niccolo Gentile, Caspar Kaiser, and Ekaterina Oparina)
Publications
Happiness predicts compliance with preventive health behaviours during COVID-19 lockdowns(opens in new window)
- Journal article
- Scientific Reports
Taking a wellbeing-years approach to policy choice(opens in new window)
- Journal article
- BMJ: British Medical Journal
The SDGs and human well-being: a global analysis of synergies, trade-offs, and regional differences(opens in new window)
- Journal article
- Scientific Reports
The motivational cost of inequality: opportunity gaps reduce the willingness to work(opens in new window)
- Journal article
- PLoS One
How to Improve Tax Compliance? Evidence from Population-wide Experiments in Belgium
- Journal article
- Journal of Political Economy
Teaching
Jan teaches on the economics of wellbeing, political economy, market and non-market strategy.
He previously taught at Harvard, INSEAD, and University College London. He has been awarded multiple teaching prizes.
Social media
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