Books
Fabian, M. (2025). Beyond Happy: How to Rethink Happiness and Find Fulfilment. Bedford Square.
Fabian, M. (2022). A Theory of Subjective Wellbeing. Oxford University Press.
Review by Gil Hersh in Economics and Philosophy here.
Review by Willem van der Deijl in Erasmus Journal for Philosophy and Economics here.
Review by Jessica Sutherland in Philosophy and Psychology here.
Review by Malte Dold in Utilitas here.
Fabian, M. and Breunig, R. (2018). Hybrid Public Policy Innovations: Contemporary Policy Beyond Ideology. Routledge.
Book Chapters
Fabian, M. (2024). The Ethics of Wellbeing. In Brockmann, H. & Fernandez Urbano, R. (eds.), Elgar Encyclopaedia of Happiness, Quality of Life, and Subjective Wellbeing. (Link).
Fabian, M. (2024). The Epistemology of Wellbeing. In Brockmann, H. & Fernandez Urbano, R. (eds.), Elgar Encyclopaedia of Happiness, Quality of Life, and Subjective Wellbeing. (Link).
Fabian. M. (2018). The Ends and Means of Public Policy. In M. Fabian and R. Breunig (eds.), Hybrid Public Policy Innovations: Contemporary Policy Beyond Ideology. London, UK: Routledge. Download.
Journal Articles
Fabian, M. and Dold, M. (2025). Agentic Preferences: A Conditional Defence of Nudges When Preferences are Endogenous. Behavioural Public Policy, vol. 9, no. 1, pp. 249–269. (Download Open Access).
Dold, M., Emmerick, E. & Fabian, M. (2024). Taking Psychology Seriously? A Self-Determination Theory Perspective on Sugden's Opportunity Criterion. Online first in Journal of Economic Methodology. (Working Paper).
Fabian, M., Alexandrova, A., Agarwala, M., Coyle, D., Fabian, M. & Felici, M. (2024). Well-Being Public Policy Needs More Theory. International Journal of Wellbeing, vol. 14, no. 3. (Download Open Access).
Cinamon Nair, Y. & Fabian, M. (2024). The value of researcher reflexivity in the coproduction of public policy: A practical perspective. Online first in Journal of Medical Humanities. (Download Open Access).
Fabian, M. Alexandrova, A., and Cinamon-Nair, Y. (2023). Coproducing Wellbeing Public Policy: A Theory of Thriving in Financial Hardship. Online first in Journal of Happiness Studies. (Download Open Access).
Coyle, D., Fabian, M., Besley, T., M., Stevens, M. & Beinhocker, E. (2023). Rebooting Normative Economics. Fiscal Studies, vol. 44, no. 2, pp. 105 - 220. (Download Open Access)
Cooper, C., Fabian, M., & Krekel, C. (2023). New Approaches to Measuring Economic Welfare. Fiscal Studies, vol. 44, no. 2, pp. 123 - 135. (Download Open Access)
Fabian, M., Breunig, R. and De Neve, J. (2023). Worldview defense and self-determination theory explain the return of racial voting: Evidence from the 2016 US election. European Journal of Social Psychology, vol. 53, no. 1, pp. 147 - 166. (Download Open Access).
Fabian, M., Agarwala, M., Alexandrova, A., Coyle, D., and Felici, M. (2022). Respecting the Subject in Well-Being Policy: Beyond the Social Planner Perspective. Journal of European Public Policy, vol. 30, no. 8, pp. 1494 - 1517. (Download Open Access)
Fabian, M. A Psychologically-Enriched Version of Tiberius' Theory of Well-Being as Value-Fulfilment. (2022). Philosophical Psychology, vol. 35, no. 6, pp. 862 - 886. (Download Open Access)
Foa, R. S., Fabian, M. and Gilbert, S. (2022). COVID-19 and Subjective Well-Being: Separating the Effects of Lockdowns from the Pandemic. PLoS ONE, vol. 17, no. 2, e0163570. (Download Open Access)
Alexandrova, A. and Fabian, M. (2022). Democratising Measurement: or Why Thick Concepts Call for Coproduction. European Journal for the Philosophy of Science, vol. 12, no. 7, pp. 1-23. (Download Open Access)
Fabian, M. and Pykett, J. (2021). Be Happy: Navigating Normative Issues in Behavioural and Well-Being Public Policy. Perspectives on Psychological Science, vol. 17, no. 1, pp. 169 - 182. (Webinar)
Fabian, M. Scale Norming Makes Welfare Analysis with Life Satisfaction Data Difficult. (2021). Journal of Happiness Studies, vol. 23, no. 4, pp. 1509-1541. (Download Open Access)
Fabian, M. (2021). DevSim: A PowerPoint-Based Simulator Game for Teaching Economic Development. Journal of Economics Teaching, vol. 6, no. 2, pp. 95 - 105. (Download Open Access)
Fabian, M. (2021). Improving Interdisciplinary Research in Well-Being - A Review, with Further Comments, of Bishop's The Good Life: Unifying the Philosophy and Psychology of Well-Being. Journal of Happiness Studies, vol. 22, no. 6, pp. 2829 - 2844. Download.
Fabian, M. (2020) The Coalescence of Being: A Model of the Self-Actualization Process. Journal of Happiness Studies, vol. 21, no. 4, pp. 1487 - 1508. doi: 10.1007/s10902-019-00141-7. Download.
Fabian, M. and Breunig, R. (2019). Long Work-Hours and Job Satisfaction: Do Overworkers Get Trapped in Bad Jobs? Social Science Quarterly, vol. 100, no. 5, pp. 1932 - 1956. doi: 10.1111/ssqu.12648. Download.
Fabian, M. (2018). Racing from Subjective Well-Being to Public Policy: A Review of The Origins of Happiness. Journal of Happiness Studies, vol. 20, no. 6, pp. 2011 - 2026. doi: 10.1007/s10902-018-0019-7. Download.
Commissioned Works and Papers not in Academic Journals
Fabian, M. & Alexandrova, A. (2022). When, Why, and How to do Coproduction in Wellbeing Policy and Practice. What Works Centre for Wellbeing Methods Paper. Download Open Access.
Seivwright, A., Kolchar, S., Fabian, M. & Lester, L. (2022). Towards a Shared Understanding and Articulation of a Common Population Outcomes Framework. Report for the Tasmanian Government Department of Premier and Cabinet. (Download Open Access).
Alexandrova, A. & Fabian, M. (2021). The Science of Wellbeing. John Templeton Foundation. (Download Open Access).
Fabian, M. (2020). How Can the Middle Class Flourish in the 21st Century? Insights from the Science of Well-Being. Brookings Institution Future of the Middle Class Project Background Papers. Download Open Access.
Working Papers Under Review
Wilkinson, J. & Fabian, M. Bricolage in local government perspectives on cycling infrastructure. Revise and resubmit at Mobilities.
Academic Book Reviews
Hijacked: How Neoliberalism Turned the Work Ethic Against Workers and How Workers Can Take it Back, by Elizabeth Anderson (Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, MA, 2023), pp. xviii +369. (Download).
Welfare Theory, Public Action, and Ethical Values, by Blackhouse, Baujard & Nishizawa (Cambridge University Press, Cambridge UK, 2023), pp. ix + 338). Oeconomica, vol. 13, no. 4, pp. 1305 - 1309. (Download Open Access)
Free and Equal: What Would a Fair Society Look Like? By Daniel Chandler (Allen Lane, London, UK, 2023), pp. v + 403. Economic Record, vol. 99, no. 327, pp. 573 - 576.
Public Spending and the Role of the State: History, Performance, Risks and Remedies, by Ludger Schuknecht, (Cambridge University Press, Cambridge UK, 2021), pp. xx + 283. Online first at Economic Record.
Time Smart: How to Reclaim Your Time and Live a Happier Life, by Ashley Whillans, (Harvard Business Review Press, Boston, MA, 2020), pp. viii +184. International Journal of Happiness and Development, vol. 6, no. 4, pp. 439-440.
A Philosophy for the Science of Well-Being, by Anna Alexandrova, (Oxford University Press, Oxford, UK, 2017), pp. xiii + 196. Economic Record, vol. 95, no. 310, pp. 389 – 392
Happiness For All? Unequal Hopes and Lives in Pursuit of the American dream, by Carol Graham, (Princeton University Press, Princeton, New Jersey, 2017), pp. xv + 192. Economic Record, vol. 94, no. 304, pp. 104-106
Stability of Happiness: Theories and Evidence on Whether Happiness can Change, by Kennon M. Sheldon and Richard E. Lucas eds. (Elsevier Academic Press, Oxford, UK, 2014) pp. xvi + 317. Economic Record, vol. 92, no. 297
Happiness and Economic Growth: Lessons from developing countries by Andrew E. Clark and Claudia Senik (Oxford University Press: Oxford, UK, 2014), pp. xiv + 277. Economic Record, vol. 92 no. 296
Why Gender Matters in Economics by Mukesh Eswaran (Princeton University Press: Princeton, NJ), pp. xii + 392. Economic Record, vol.91, no. 292
Measuring Happiness: The Economics of Wellbeing, by Joachim Weimann, Andreas Knabe and Ronnie Schob (MIT Press, Cambridge: MA, 2015) pp. x + 212. Economic Record, vol. 91 no. 294
Work in Progress (descending by progress)
Fabian, M. & Franco, V. Clarifying the Concept of Psychological Richness: Is it Part of Subjective Well-Being?
Fabian, M., Kaiser, C., Funk, S., Panasiuk, S. & Brett, C. Evidence Against the Simple Statistical Validity of Life Satisfaction Scales from Long Form Cognitive Interviews.
Fabian, M., Fleming, W., Wdowin, J. & Pountney, L. Coproducing wellbeing public policy at different scales: Implications for policy design, measurement, management, and evaluation.
Fabian, M., Kaiser, C., Funk, S., Panasiuk, S. & Brett, C. What Determines People's Life Satisfaction? An idiographic Analysis of 100 Long Form Cognitive Interviews.
Fabian, M. The Wellbeing State: Transforming Public Policy. Book Project.
Fabian, M. & Fleming, W. Institutionalising the sociological imagination in public policy through coproduction: What can we learn from charities?
Larroulet-Philippi, C., Alexandrova, A., Coyle, D., Fabian, M., Agarwala, M. and Felici, M. What are WELLBYs good for?
Fabian, M. Conscience: The Critical Links Between Well-Being and the (Social) Psychology of Valuation
Fabian, M. Treating People as They Are or as They Can Be: Implications for Psychological Policy.
Opinion Articles and Other Short Commentaries
Self-determination theory: How to use it to boost wellbeing. The Conversation, 04/09/2025
Are you pleasant to be around? Irish Times, 28/04/2025.
We need to get back to civic life. The Scotsman 26/05/2025.
The Problem of Nihilism. Welldoing.org.
Start banking on your happiness – you’ll never go bust. Daily Express and Daily Mirror, 22/04/2025
Healing, not coping. The Psychologist. 10 April 2025.
Green growth or degrowth: what is the right way to tackle climate change? The Conversation Australia, 26/11/2023
Measuring wellbeing in London: A participatory and place-based approach. Bennett Institute for Public Policy blog, 26/10/2023
It's time to move beyond the welfare state to a wellbeing state. 360info, 7/06/2023
A Theory of Thriving for People Living in Financial Hardship: Findings from a Coproduction Exercise. What works Well-Being Centre Blog, 02/11/2021
Respecting the subject in subjective well-being public policy. Bennett Institute for Public Policy blog, 05/10/2021
Wellbeing public policy needs more theory. Bennett Institute for Public Policy blog, 28/06/2021
Learning normative lessons from behavioural public policy for well-being public policy. Bennett Institute for Public Policy blog, 17/03/2021
Why public policy for well-being needs more than one approach, What Works Well-Being Centre Blog, 10/03/2021
Well-Being Increased During the First UK Lockdown - But Not For Everyone, LSE British Politics and Policy Blog, 22/12/2020
Hijacking anxiety: how Trump weaponised social alienation into ‘racialised economics’ . The Conversation, 02/11/2020
Wellbeing levels fell during the pandemic but improved under the lockdown, data analysis shows. The Conversation, 31/07/2020
How Denmark Broke the Mould on Industrial Relations. Australian Financial Review, 4 June 2020
Bowling with Trump. Brookings Institution, 13 May 2020
Most of us who work long hours like the jobs we are in; those who don't change jobs quickly. The Conversation
New Zealand's well-being budget more smoke than fire. East Asia Forum, 15 June 2019
Australia votes for the fossil option. East Asia Forum, 28 May 2019
The supposed failure of liberal-centrism is anything but. The Australian Rationalist, 26 September 2018
Government v Market? In fact, hybrid policy is the best fit for the 21st century. The Conversation, 4 July 2018
Blaming migrants for unemployment, lower wages and high house prices is too simplistic. The Conversation, 23 February 2018
It’s time to draw the line in the sand on trigger warnings. Quillette, 13/10/2016,
India needs to harness the market instead of fighting it. East Asia Forum, 21/06/2016,
Generalising the middle-income trap. East Asia Forum, 28/04/2016
India’s demographic dividend strait-jacketed by labour regulations. East Asia Forum, 25/04/2016
Confusion about -isms is compounding schisms. Quillette, 11/04/2016
Socialism is worse than capitalism - you want a welfare state, Quillette, 21/2016;
Childcare not the only cost for working women in Japan. East Asia Forum, 16 September 2014
Japan needs to reform its work hour culture. East Asia Forum, 22 January 2014
ASEAN the key to security in Asia. East Asia Forum, 10 August 2013
For love not money: kidney exchange encourages social contract. The Conversation, 24 February 2012
What’s great about Canberra? ANU Reporter, vol. 45 no. 2 pg. 26
Unstarted Projects
These are ideas I have for papers and I don't know where else to store them
Fabian, M. & friends. Muddling Through: A Coherentist Philosophy for the Science of Well-Being
Fabian, M. et al. How to coproduce wellbeing indicators? A how to guide based on qualitative research
Fabian, M. Normative Vacuum: How and Why to Rebuild Social Institutions in a Secular World
Fabian, M. Utility? Well-Being and the Behavioural Sciences
Fabian, M. Behavioural Economics is a Threat to Welfare Modelling but Not Preference-Satisfaction as a Welfare Criterion
Fabian, M. Causal Analysis When Choice is Inextricably Endogenous
Fabian, M. Insights From Reconciling Analysis-For and Analysis-Of Public Policy
Fabian, M. Numerical Rather Than Analytic Solutions: A Better Paradigm for Ethical Philosophy
Fabian, M. What Determines the Resilience of Subjective Well-Being? Evidence from Longitudinal Social Surveys.
Fabian, M. How Social Capital Forms and Altruism Emerges: Ethnographic Evidence from the Miniature Wargaming Community
Fabian, M. How Social Capital Forms and Altruism Emerges: Ethnographic Evidence from Secular Churches
Fabian, M. How Social Capital Forms and Altruism Emerges: Ethnographic Evidence from the Effective Altruism Movement
Cognitive Interviewing Life Satisfaction Reports
Scale norming study of graduates from a residential college at a large state university