Dr. Alan Piper

Profile

Summary

Alan joined the economics department at Leeds in 2022. Before then he worked for institutions in Germany and France, as well as the UK. With respect to teaching, he has over twenty-five years’ experience of giving classes in economics and research methods, at the undergraduate and graduate level. With respect to research, he is intensely interested in the study of human wellbeing – from economics and social science perspectives.

His key research interest is relationship between age, ageing and wellbeing, both with respect to the whole lifecycle and in its separate parts. This research has led to interviews with, and coverage by, various media outlets on this topic resulting in newspaper and magazine articles in multiple countries; Aspects of his work on this topic also feature on a recent podcast interview and a webinar. He has also given well-received public lectures about this topic. Other research interests which he has published articles on relate to wellbeing and contemporary concerns, both of individuals and society. This includes work on gender gaps, migration, overeducation, physical pain and sleep. His recent work has also investigated narcissism, optimism and pessimism and the big 5 personality traits too. In total, he has published over 25 journal articles, book chapters, encyclopedia and handbook entries.

He is on the editorial board of the Journal of Wellbeing Economics, and an associate editor of the Applied Research in Quality of Life journal. He serves on the scientific committee for conferences of the International Society for Quality of Life Studies, a Global Labour Organisation fellow, a member of the scientific team of Harvard’s Global Flourishing Survey, and a member of the World Wellbeing Panel. His research has been formally commended for “demonstrating innovation and excellence in happiness studies”. He is available to supervise PhDs in the broad economics of wellbeing area.

Student education

Alan has over twenty-five years of experience teaching at undergraduate level and above. He has taught most typical subjects within economics, with a current focus on welfare economics and other microeconomic topics, both applied and theoretical. Furthermore he has supervised many BA, BSc, MA and MSc dissertations and theses.