Is it possible to predict which children will grow into unhappy adults? Or do we determine our own wellbeing? Paul Frijters, the 2009 Young Economist Award recipient, examines a case study of 20,000 children, followed throughout their lives, to see whether we can truly predict happiness. Along the way, Paul examines the role that money has to play in happiness and questions whether true contentment could simply be the result of your gender.

Paul Frijters @paul_frijters
Paul Frijters is a Professor of Economics at the University of Queensland and an adjunct professor at the Australian National University’s Research School of Social Sciences. Paul has a wide range of research interests, specialising in happiness, labour market, health economics and econometrics.

In 2009, Paul was awarded the Economic Society of Australia’s Young Economist Award. Paul is also a contributor to ClubTroppo, a blog commenting on politics, economics, law and life from a ‘radical centrist’ perspective.