Professional Activities
- Distinguished Fellow of the Canadian Institute for Advanced Research. 2017-
- Co-director (with George Akerlof) of the CIFAR Program on ‘Social Interactions, Identity and Well-Being’, 2005-2017
- International Advisory Board, Centre for International Governance Innovation, 2002-2010
- Member of National Statistics Council, 2001-2015
- Board member, Social Research and Demonstration Corporation, 2002-2015
- Research Associate, National Bureau of Economic Research, 1980-2023
- Board Member, Institute for Research in Public Policy, 1999-2007
- Killam Visiting Scholar, University of Calgary, 2005.
- Visiting Special Advisor, Bank of Canada, 2003-04
- Visiting Fellow, Merton College, Oxford, 2003
- Visiting Fellow, St Catherine’s College, Oxford, 2001.
- Mackenzie King Visiting Professor of Canadian Studies, Harvard University 1991 – 1994
- Fulbright Fellow and Co-chair of Canada Program, Harvard University 1995 – 1996
- President, Canadian Economics Association, 1985-86
- Managing Editor, Canadian Journal of Economics, 1979-1982.
Brief biography
John F. Helliwell is a Distinguished Fellow of the Canadian Institute for Advanced Research. He is also Professor Emeritus of Economics at the University of British Columbia. He was previously a member of the National Statistics Council 2001-2015, visiting special advisor at the Bank of Canada in 2003-04, visiting research fellow of Merton College, Oxford, in 2003, of St. Catherine’s College, Oxford, in 2001, and Mackenzie King Visiting Professor of Canadian Studies at Harvard in 1991-94. His books include How Much Do National Borders Matter? (Brookings Institution, 1998), The Contribution of Human and Social Capital to Sustained Economic Growth and Well-Being (OECD and HRDC, 2001), Globalization and Well-Being (UBC Press, 2002, also as Mondialisation et bien-être, Les Presses de l’Université Laval, 2005), The Science of Well-Being (Oxford University Press, 2005), Well-Being for Public Policy (OUP, with Diener, Lucas and Schimmack, 2009), International Differences in Well-Being (OUP, edited with Diener and Kahneman, 2010), and the World Happiness Report (edited with Richard Layard and Jeffrey Sachs for the April 2, 2012 UN meeting on Happiness) . Recent articles include “Well-Being, Social Capital and Public Policy: What’s New?” (Economic Journal, March 2006), “Well-Being and Social Capital: Does Suicide Pose a Puzzle?” (Social Indicators Research, 2007), “How’s Your Government? International Evidence Linking Good Government and Well-Being.” (joint with Haifang Huang, British Journal of Political Science 2007), “The Social Context of Well-Being” (joint with Robert Putnam) in Huppert, Bayliss and Keverne, eds, “Measuring and Understanding Subjective Well-Being” (joint with Christopher P. Barrington-Leigh, Canadian Journal of Economics 2010) and “Trust and Well-Being” (joint with Shun Wang, International Journal of Wellbeing 2011). He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada and an Officer of the Order of Canada.