Academia and Research

My goal is to do good, reliable, and open research that has a positive impact. Currently I am working as a research analyst for The Happier Lives Institute.


Research at The Happier Lives Institute

I work on evaluating the cost-effectiveness of intervention: How much they improve subjective wellbeing per dollar spent.


[video] The cost-effectiveness of psychotherapy in low- and middle-income countries - STATEC 2024

Dupret (2024)

I present HLI's latest work at STATEC 2024.

[video] Setting wellbeing priorities in the real world - Wellbeing Research Centre (University of Oxford)

Dupret (2024)

I present HLI's latest work at Wellbeing Research Centre (University of Oxford).

HLI’s Giving Season 2023 Research Overview

HLI (2023)

In this report, we provide an overview of all our evaluations to date as well as our conclusions for Giving Season 2023.

Talking through depression: The cost-effectiveness of psychotherapy in LMICs, revised and expanded

McGuire, Dupret, Dwyer, Plant, and Klapow (2023)

In this substantial update to our work on psychotherapy we conduct a systematic review, a meta-analysis, and cost-effectiveness analyses of two charities who deliver psychotherapy (StrongMinds and Friendship Bench). This is a working report that will be updated over time, results may change.

[video] Taking subjective wellbeing seriously - EAGx Warsaw

Dupret (2023)

I present HLI's latest work at EAGx Warsaw.

[video] [French] Mesurer le bien-être pour l'impact - Altruisme Efficace France

Dupret (2023)

Je présente la recherche du Happier Lives Institute à Altruisme Efficace France.

[video] Subjective Well-being measures from the Happier Lives Institute and relevant next steps

Dupret (2023)

I present HLI's work at the Christian Impact Conference in DC. I also present some Christian views on wellbeing (these are not representative of the views of my employer).

Lead Exposure: a shallow cause exploration

McGuire, Dupret, Plant, and Dwyer (2023)

We explore the impact of lead exposure on subjective wellbeing. We review the literature, model the impact of lead exposure on wellbeing, and conduct some back-of-the-envelope calculations of the cost-effectiveness of various interventions to decrease lead exposure.

Can we trust wellbeing surveys? A pilot study of comparability, linearity, and neutrality

Samuelsson, Dupret, Plant, and Kaiser (2023)

We present a pilot of 50 survey questions we intend to use to assess questions of comparability, linearity, and neutrality in subjective wellbeing measurements.

Immigration reform: a shallow cause exploration

McGuire, Dupret, Plant, and Dwyer (2023)

We explore the impact of immigration on subjective wellbeing. We review the literature, model the impact of immigration on wellbeing, and conduct some back-of-the-envelope calculations of the cost-effectiveness of various interventions to increase immigration.

Pain relief: a shallow cause exploration

Dupret, McGuire, and Plant (2023)

We explore the relationship between pain and subjective wellbeing; assess the severity and scale of chronic pain in terms of life satisfaction; and offer some novel back-of-the-envelope calculations for the cost-effectiveness of several interventions to treat pain.

A can of worms

Dupret, McGuire, Dwyer, and Plant (2022)

Deworming has non-significant effects on long-term happiness. Converging information suggests to us that there is no effect. We cannot recommend deworming interventions at this point in time.

The elephant in the bednet

Plant, McGuire, and Dupret (2022)

To compare the value of saving lives to improving lives we need to make various philosophical assumptions.

A dozen doubts about GiveWell's numbers

McGuire, Plant, and Dupret (2022)

We raise twelve critiques of GiveWell's cost-effectiveness analyses.

Ten apply to specific inputs for malaria prevention, cash transfers, deworming, and two are relevant for more than one intervention.

To WELLBY or not to WELLBY? Measuring non-health, non-pecuniary benefits using subjective wellbeing

McGuire, Dupret, and Plant (2022)

We argue that the wellbeing-adjusted life year (WELLBY) is the best measure of the good interventions do. This was for Open Philanthropy's Cause Exploration Prizes.

Deworming and decay: Replicating GiveWell’s cost-effectiveness analysis

McGuire, Dupret, and Plant (2022)

We critise GiveWell for a lack of clarity in their deworming analysis.

Notably, the data suggests a decay in benefits over time that their analysis does not include.

Happiness for the whole family

McGuire, Dupret, and Plant (2022)

We incorporate household spillover effects in our cost-effectiveness analysis of cash transfers and psychotherapy.

We find that psychotherapy (StrongMinds) is 9 times more cost-effective than cash transfer (Give Directly).

Skills

Read & Write

Literature review and academic writing

Design

Lab and online experiment design

Code

Data wrangling and analysis in R

Statistical Analysis

Linear, logistic, mixed-effects, and meta-analysis models

Cause prioritisation

Conduct reviews and cost-effectiveness analyses of charities and interventions

Earlier Research

MSc thesis in behavioural economics (2020) +

Developed, conducted, and analysed a study with a special Prisoner's Dilemma to see if the possibility that your choice might be detected and punished influences cooperation rates.

Data and Code

BSc thesis in perception psychology (2019) +

Literature review and laboratory experiment on gloss perception.

Wellcome Biomedical Vacation Scholarship (2018) +

Collaboratively designed and prepared a research project to investigate anxiety and the visual probe.

Voluntary Research Assistant (2017) +

Managed qualitative and quantitative data and ran multiple mediation models to facilitate my colleagues’ research on nostalgia.

Education & Experience

Research Assistant (2020-2021)

Making researchers' projects happen

  • developing and running online multiplayer experiments
  • writing documentation for Empirica.ly
  • wrangling and analysing data in R

MSc Cognitive and Decision Sciences (2019-2020)

Distinction - Dean's List Award

  • behavioural economics thesis project
  • cognition, causal models, and bayesian reasoning
  • judgement, decision making, and applied decision making

Bsc Psychology (2016-2019)

First Class Honours - Dean's List Award

BPS Award for Best Student (overall) - Tony Gale Award for Best Student (year 2)

  • perception thesis project
  • learning, personality, and cognition
  • social psychology, persuasion, and group interactions