How does a government work out the best way to spend money to maximise not just GDP but the long-term health and happiness of its population? This is something our government is trying to do, or says it’s trying to do – but when it comes to the wellbeing side of the equation, is it doing a good enough job? In this episode, Bernard Hickey talks to Girol Karacaoglu, head of the school of government at Victoria University and one of the architects of the way New Zealand analyses happiness. He then talks to Susan St John, an economist at the University of Auckland’s business school who has an interesting take on what we should be spending our money on.

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