02026cas a2200229 a 4500 AALejournalIMF015220 230101c9999 xx r poo 0 0eng d 9781475537161 0145-1707 BD-DhAAL BD-DhAAL International Monetary Fund. External Relations Dept. Finance and Development, December 2015. Washington, D.C. : International Monetary Fund, 2015. 1 online resource (60 pages) Finance and Development <strong>Off-Campus Access:</strong> No User ID or Password Required <strong>On-Campus Access:</strong> No User ID or Password Required Electronic access restricted to authorized BRAC University faculty, staff and students This article presents an overview of the life of Richard Layard, who believes that the basic purpose of economics is the maximization of happiness and well-being. As director of the Wellbeing Programme at the London School of Economics' Centre for Economic Performance, Layard focuses on the study of happiness. Layard was a distinguished labor economist long before he turned his attention to happiness. He is best known for his research in the 1980s on unemployment and for his advocacy of policies to support unemployed people on the condition that they try to find work. This 'welfare to work' approach became popular in parts of continental Europe and was a mainstay of British Prime Minister Tony Blair's economic program. Layard's other current preoccupation is climate change. He is one of the drivers of the Global Apollo Program, a project to make renewable energy cheaper than fossil fuels within 10 years through publicly funded, internationally coordinated research and innovation. Mode of access: Internet Finance and Development; Finance and Development ; No. 0052/004 Full text available on IMF http://elibrary.imf.org/view/journals/022/0052/004/022.0052.issue-004-en.xml IMF e-Library