CO2 #3 The 10 Things Economics Can Tell Us About Happiness (via SimoleonSense)

Money can buy happiness, but up to what point? And does working more make us miserable? And will you be happier if you start your own company? Here's what the research tells us...

Last week, I shared the OECD's brand new rankings of the happiest countries on earth. This week, let's pull back the lens and consider the most important lessons about well-being from the mountainous piles of economic research distilled by the New Economics Foundation's excellent review. All caveats about the messiness of research bias and the usefulness of self-reported happiness surveys apply.

Read here the 10 main findings from the New Economics Foundation: EconomicsHappiness

O2 #2 Why We Lie, Go to Prison and Eat Cake: 10 Questions With Dan Ariely (via Wired)

A professor of behavioral economics and psychology at Duke University, Ariely is the author of Predictably Irrational: The Hidden Forces that Shape Our Decisions, and The Upside of Irrationality: The Unexpected Benefits of Defying Logic, both New York Times bestsellers. Ariely’s new book, The (Honest) Truth About Dishonesty, explores some of the surprising reasons we lie to each other, and ourselves. Raised in Israel, Ariely holds Ph.D.s in both business administration and psychology. Wired senior editor Joanna Pearlstein spoke with Ariely as part of the Live Talks Business Forums series at the City Club of Los Angeles.

Read 10 questions with the man of the momente here: 10Ariely

O2 #1 OCDE Better Life Index (via OCDE)

There is more to life than the cold numbers of GDP and economic statistics – This Index allows you to compare well-being across countries, based on 11 topics the OECD has identified as essential, in the areas of material living conditions and quality of life.

Use this amazing instrument, available online, and discover the country you would prefer to live, according with 11 criteria: OCDEindex

CO2 #3 Squeezing out the doctor (via TheEconomist)

The role of physicians at the centre of health care is under pressure.

IN A windowless room on a quiet street in Framingham, outside Boston, Rob Goudswaard and his colleagues are trying to unpick the knottiest problem in health care: how to look after an ageing and thus sickening population efficiently. The walls are plastered with photographs of typical patients—here a man who exercises occasionally, there a woman with many chronic ailments. Big sheets of paper chart each patient’s course from the hospital back to a comfortable life at home, with divergent lines showing all the problems that might arise and ways to handle them. To map the many paths to health in this way Mr Goudswaard’s team interviewed a lot of patients and nurses.

But this “war room” does not belong to a hospital. It belongs to Philips, a Dutch electronics company. Mr Goudswaard, the head of innovation for Philips’s home-monitoring business, has no medical training. His speciality is the consumer.

Check this opinion, about the future of medical practices here: MedicalConsumer

CO2 #2 Fighting Sign Pollution in Florida With Robocalls (via NewYorkTimes)

In Florida, they are as much a part of the landscape as palm trees and oceanfront hotels: plastic signs cluttering roadsides with messages like “We Buy Houses!” “Junk Cars!” and “Avoid Foreclosure!”

But now, worried about the impact on tourism and the state’s natural beauty, some coastal communities have begun aggressive campaigns against the signs — by robocalling the advertisers’ phone numbers.

Check here the NYT article about this clever way cities found to fight visual pollution: RoboCalls

CO2 #1 Soda Ban Will Fail and Jeopardize Future Public Health Efforts (via USNews)

We've dedicated our research careers to helping people eat better, contributing to Smarter School Lunchrooms, 100-calorie packs, and the 2010 Dietary Guidelines. We fear that this ban on large soft drinks will be a huge setback to fighting obesity for two reasons: 1) unless it succeeds, it will poison the water for better solutions, and 2) it won't succeed.

First, consider the McLean Effect. McDonald's launches the visible and controversial low-calorie hamburger. It failed, becoming a byword for restaurants for the next 15 years. No one would dare introduce low-calorie fast-food offerings because "Look what happened to the McLean."

Check here this brief article from Wansink&Just, about banning large soft drinks: SodaBan

O2 #3 'Truth About Dishonesty' sheds Light on the Lies we Tell (via USA Today)

Be honest. Would you cheat if you were certain you'd get away with it?

Best-selling author Dan Ariely says most people cheat — but just a tad. He calls it the fudge factor.

We cheat up to the level that allows us to retain our self images as reasonably honest individuals, says Ariely, who teaches behavioral economics at Duke.

We want to see ourselves as honorable, he says, but we also want to benefit from cheating. That's especially true when we observe others around us cheating — fudging their taxes, boosting pens from the office supply cabinet, underreporting the number of miles they drive each year for insurance purposes.

Read here, this interesting presentation of another great book of Dan Ariely: Dishonesty