Bangkok - With protests from Chile to Hong Kong last year over widening inequality, violence against women, and climate change, more policymakers and campaigners started to openly debate potential shifts away from an economic model that relies on growth.
New Zealand became the first nation to introduce a Wellbeing Budget that requires all new spending to go to five priority areas including mental health, child well-being, indigenous people and a low-carbon-emission economy.Bhutan coined the term "gross national happiness" in the 1970s, the Organisation of Economic Cooperation and Development has released an annual well-being index since 2011, while the United Nations' annual happiness report started in 2012.
But can nations prosper by putting well-being ahead of GDP in 2020? The Thomson Reuters Foundation asked nine experts: