I think our current perspective on the Euro is shaped by the recent crisis and in particular by the Greek experience. Would Greece get out of the crisis faster and be better off without Euro? This is a difficult counterfactual to contemplate. I believe the problems at root of the Greek (or Spanish or Italian) economic problems, such as slow growth and high unemployment, are structural and there are limits what the independent monetary policy could do. With the recent rise of populist policies, being part of a monetary union might have more benefits than harms, as countries cannot avoid facing their structural problems. Yet, as Greek experience demonstrated there is an important human toll of this approach, and a common fiscal policy, with European-wide welfare-state measures, should be an important item in the EU agenda moving forward.

While I think that empirical analysis, macro or micro, should make greater use of subjective well-being measures, I do not think that they can yet play a role in guiding policy. Macroeconomic policies work well when they have clear objectives, and when we understand their pros and cons clearly. I do not think insights from the quantitative well-being analysis satisfies these criteria yet.