IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/kap/jecinq/v17y2019i2d10.1007_s10888-018-9398-6.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Regional well-being in the OECD

Author

Listed:
  • Jesús Peiró-Palomino

    (University Jaume I)

Abstract

This paper analyses convergence in well-being across 395 OECD regions in the period 2000–2014 using data from the Regional Well-being Dataset. It is widely known that well-being is a concept that goes far beyond income. However, whereas papers analysing convergence on income abound, the literature considering convergence in well-being is virtually nonexistent, especially at the regional level. Convergence is approached following the distribution dynamics technique and conditional density estimation (CDE), well-established data-driven methods that allow for the assessment of the shape and the time evolution of the kernel distribution of well-being. Moreover, the paper also assesses the role of a set of potential well-being determinants. Results show great disparities across the OECD regions, and no signs of convergence in the studied period. On the contrary, regions polarised into two clubs of low and high well-being, and country level factors explain in a large extent the observed tendencies.

Suggested Citation

  • Jesús Peiró-Palomino, 2019. "Regional well-being in the OECD," The Journal of Economic Inequality, Springer;Society for the Study of Economic Inequality, vol. 17(2), pages 195-218, June.
    • Handle: RePEc:kap:jecinq:v:17:y:2019:i:2:d:10.1007_s10888-018-9398-6
    DOI: 10.1007/s10888-018-9398-6
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s10888-018-9398-6
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1007/s10888-018-9398-6?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to look for a different version below or search for a different version of it.

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Ruut Veenhoven, 2005. "Inequality Of Happiness in Nations," Journal of Happiness Studies, Springer, vol. 6(4), pages 351-355, December.
    2. Danilo Cavapozzi & Wei Han & Raffaele Miniaci, 2015. "Alternative weighting structures for multidimensional poverty assessment," The Journal of Economic Inequality, Springer;Society for the Study of Economic Inequality, vol. 13(3), pages 425-447, September.
    3. Sala-i-Martin, Xavier X, 1996. "The Classical Approach to Convergence Analysis," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 106(437), pages 1019-1036, July.
    4. Marc Fleurbaey, 2015. "Beyond Income and Wealth," Review of Income and Wealth, International Association for Research in Income and Wealth, vol. 61(2), pages 199-219, June.
    5. Andrew E. Clark & Sarah Flèche & Claudia Senik, 2016. "Economic Growth Evens Out Happiness: Evidence from Six Surveys," Review of Income and Wealth, International Association for Research in Income and Wealth, vol. 62(3), pages 405-419, September.
    6. Leonard Goff & John F. Helliwell & Guy Mayraz, 2018. "Inequality Of Subjective Well‐Being As A Comprehensive Measure Of Inequality," Economic Inquiry, Western Economic Association International, vol. 56(4), pages 2177-2194, October.
    7. Bruno S. Frey & Alois Stutzer, 2002. "What Can Economists Learn from Happiness Research?," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 40(2), pages 402-435, June.
    8. Kenny, Charles, 2005. "Why Are We Worried About Income? Nearly Everything that Matters is Converging," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 33(1), pages 1-19, January.
    9. Betsey Stevenson & Justin Wolfers, 2008. "Happiness Inequality in the United States," The Journal of Legal Studies, University of Chicago Press, vol. 37(S2), pages 33-79, June.
    10. Quah, Danny T, 1996. "Twin Peaks: Growth and Convergence in Models of Distribution Dynamics," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 106(437), pages 1045-1055, July.
    11. Quah, D., 1990. "Galton'S Fallacy And The Tests Of The Convergence Hypothesis," Working papers 552, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Department of Economics.
    12. Hideyuki Mizobuchi, 2014. "Measuring World Better Life Frontier: A Composite Indicator for OECD Better Life Index," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 118(3), pages 987-1007, September.
    13. Manfred Fischer & Peter Stumpner, 2008. "Income distribution dynamics and cross-region convergence in Europe," Journal of Geographical Systems, Springer, vol. 10(2), pages 109-139, June.
    14. Quah, Danny, 1997. "Empirics for growth and distribution," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 2138, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    15. Quah, Danny, 1996. "Twin peaks : growth and convergence in models of distribution dynamics," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 2278, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    16. Walheer, Barnabé, 2016. "Growth and convergence of the OECD countries: A multi-sector production-frontier approach," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 252(2), pages 665-675.
    17. Toni Mora, 2008. "Factors conditioning the formation of European regional convergence clubs," The Annals of Regional Science, Springer;Western Regional Science Association, vol. 42(4), pages 911-927, December.
    18. Jesús Peiró-Palomino, 2016. "European regional convergence revisited: the role of intangible assets," The Annals of Regional Science, Springer;Western Regional Science Association, vol. 57(1), pages 165-194, July.
    19. Decancq, Koen & Decoster, André & Schokkaert, Erik, 2009. "The Evolution of World Inequality in Well-being," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 37(1), pages 11-25, January.
    20. Ruut Veenhoven, 2005. "Return of Inequality in Modern Society? Test by Dispersion of Life-Satisfaction Across Time and Nations," Journal of Happiness Studies, Springer, vol. 6(4), pages 457-487, December.
    21. Mariano Rojas, 2011. "The ‘Measurement of Economic Performance and Social Progress’ Report and Quality of Life: Moving Forward," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 102(1), pages 169-180, May.
    22. Jesús Peiró-Palomino & Andrés J. Picazo-Tadeo, 2018. "OECD: One or Many? Ranking Countries with a Composite Well-Being Indicator," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 139(3), pages 847-869, October.
    23. Paolo Veneri & Fabrice Murtin, 2016. "Where is inclusive growth happening? Mapping multi-dimensional living standards in OECD regions," OECD Statistics Working Papers 2016/1, OECD Publishing.
    24. David Mayer-Foulkes, 2010. "Divergences and Convergences in Human Development," Working Papers DTE 481, CIDE, División de Economía.
    25. Bruno S. Frey, 2018. "Economics of Happiness," SpringerBriefs in Economics, Springer, number 978-3-319-75807-7, April.
    26. Emili Tortosa-Ausina, 2002. "Bank Cost Efficiency and Output Specification," Journal of Productivity Analysis, Springer, vol. 18(3), pages 199-222, November.
    27. Nazrul Islam, 2003. "What have We Learnt from the Convergence Debate?," Journal of Economic Surveys, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 17(3), pages 309-362, July.
    28. Rojas, Mariano, 2008. "Experienced Poverty and Income Poverty in Mexico: A Subjective Well-Being Approach," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 36(6), pages 1078-1093, June.
    29. Danny Quah, 1997. "Empirics for Growth and Distribution," CEP Discussion Papers dp0324, Centre for Economic Performance, LSE.
    30. Jan Lorenz & Christoph Brauer & Dirk Lorenz, 2017. "Rank-Optimal Weighting or “How to be Best in the OECD Better Life Index?”," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 134(1), pages 75-92, October.
    31. Roberto Ezcurra & Carlos Gil & Pedro Pascual, 2005. "Regional welfare disparities: the case of the European Union," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 37(12), pages 1423-1437.
    32. Quah, Danny, 1997. "Empirics for Growth and Distribution: Stratification, Polarization, and Convergence Clubs," CEPR Discussion Papers 1586, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    33. KONYA, Laszlo & GUISAN, Maria-Carmen, 2008. "What Does The Human Development Index Tell Us About Convergence?," Applied Econometrics and International Development, Euro-American Association of Economic Development, vol. 8(1), pages 19-40.
    34. Easterlin, Richard A., 1974. "Does Economic Growth Improve the Human Lot? Some Empirical Evidence," MPRA Paper 111773, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    35. Poletti Laurini, Márcio & Valls Pereira, Pedro L., 2009. "Conditional stochastic kernel estimation by nonparametric methods," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 105(3), pages 234-238, December.
    36. Quah, Danny T, 1997. "Empirics for Growth and Distribution: Stratification, Polarization, and Convergence Clubs," Journal of Economic Growth, Springer, vol. 2(1), pages 27-59, March.
    37. Peter Ven, 2015. "Introduction to the Symposium on “New Measures of Well-Being: Perspectives from Statistical Offices”," Review of Income and Wealth, International Association for Research in Income and Wealth, vol. 61(1), pages 1-3, March.
    38. Danny Quah, 1996. "Twin Peaks: Growth and Convergence in Models of Distribution Dynamics," CEP Discussion Papers dp0280, Centre for Economic Performance, LSE.
    39. repec:hal:pseose:halshs-01383827 is not listed on IDEAS
    40. repec:bla:scandj:v:95:y:1993:i:4:p:427-43 is not listed on IDEAS
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Eni Dardha & Nicky Rogge, 2020. "How's Life in Your Region? Measuring Regional Material Living Conditions, Quality of Life and Subjective Well-Being in OECD Countries Using a Robust, Conditional Benefit-of-the-Doubt Model," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 151(3), pages 1015-1073, October.
    2. Peiró-Palomino, Jesús & Picazo-Tadeo, Andrés J. & Tortosa-Ausina, Emili, 2021. "Measuring well-being in Colombian departments. The role of geography and demography," Socio-Economic Planning Sciences, Elsevier, vol. 78(C).
    3. Jesús Peiró‐Palomino & Andrés J. Picazo‐Tadeo & Vicente Rios, 2020. "Well‐being in European regions: Does government quality matter?," Papers in Regional Science, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 99(3), pages 555-582, June.
    4. Pietrovito, Filomena & Pozzolo, Alberto Franco & Resce, Giuliano & Scialà, Antonio, 2023. "Fiscal decentralization and income (re)distribution in OECD countries’ regions," Structural Change and Economic Dynamics, Elsevier, vol. 67(C), pages 69-81.
    5. Iñaki Permanyer & Nicolai Suppa, 2022. "Racing ahead or lagging behind? Territorial cohesion in human development around the globe," Regional Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 56(12), pages 2086-2101, December.
    6. Jesús Peiró-Palomino & Andrés J. Picazo-Tadeo & Emili Tortosa-Ausina, 2020. "The Geography of Well-being in Colombia," Working Papers 2020/03, Economics Department, Universitat Jaume I, Castellón (Spain).
    7. Paolo Caro, 2020. "Decomposing Personal Income Tax Redistribution with Application to Italy," The Journal of Economic Inequality, Springer;Society for the Study of Economic Inequality, vol. 18(1), pages 113-129, March.
    8. Carnazza, Giovanni & Liberati, Paolo & Resce, Giuliano, 2023. "Income-related unmet needs in the European countries," Socio-Economic Planning Sciences, Elsevier, vol. 87(PA).
    9. Michele Costa & Flavio Delbono & Francesco Linguiti, 2021. "Cooperative Movement and Prosperity across Italian Regions," Working Papers wp1161, Dipartimento Scienze Economiche, Universita' di Bologna.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Jesús Peiró-Palomino, 2016. "European regional convergence revisited: the role of intangible assets," The Annals of Regional Science, Springer;Western Regional Science Association, vol. 57(1), pages 165-194, July.
    2. Paul Johnson & Chris Papageorgiou, 2020. "What Remains of Cross-Country Convergence?," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 58(1), pages 129-175, March.
    3. Peiró-Palomino, Jesús & Picazo-Tadeo, Andrés J. & Tortosa-Ausina, Emili, 2021. "Measuring well-being in Colombian departments. The role of geography and demography," Socio-Economic Planning Sciences, Elsevier, vol. 78(C).
    4. Felipe Santos‐Marquez & Carlos Mendez, 2021. "Regional convergence, spatial scale, and spatial dependence: Evidence from homicides and personal injuries in Colombia 2010–2018," Regional Science Policy & Practice, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 13(4), pages 1162-1184, August.
    5. Aparna Lolayekar & Pranab Mukhopadhyay, 2017. "Growth Convergence and Regional Inequality in India (1981–2012)," Journal of Quantitative Economics, Springer;The Indian Econometric Society (TIES), vol. 15(2), pages 307-328, June.
    6. Olivier Peron & Serge Rey, 2012. "Trade and convergence of per capita income in the Indian Ocean Zone, 1950–2008," The Annals of Regional Science, Springer;Western Regional Science Association, vol. 49(3), pages 657-683, December.
    7. Jesús Peiró-Palomino & Emili Tortosa-Ausina, 2014. "On the sources of European regional convergence: Does social capital have an economic payoff?," Working Papers 2014/16, Economics Department, Universitat Jaume I, Castellón (Spain).
    8. Jesús Peiró-Palomino, 2013. "European regional convergence revisited: The role of space and the intangible assets," Working Papers 2013/11, Economics Department, Universitat Jaume I, Castellón (Spain).
    9. Jonas Grafström, 2018. "Divergence of renewable energy invention efforts in Europe: an econometric analysis based on patent counts," Environmental Economics and Policy Studies, Springer;Society for Environmental Economics and Policy Studies - SEEPS, vol. 20(4), pages 829-859, October.
    10. José Villaverde & Adolfo Maza & María Hierro, 2014. "Health care expenditure disparities in the European Union and underlying factors: a distribution dynamics approach," International Journal of Health Economics and Management, Springer, vol. 14(3), pages 251-268, September.
    11. Sulekha Hembram & Sohini Mukherjee & Sushil Kr. Haldar, 2020. "Regional convergence of social and economic development in the districts of West Bengal, India: Do clubs exist? Does space matter? An empirical analysis using DLHS I–IV and NFHS IV data," Journal of Social and Economic Development, Springer;Institute for Social and Economic Change, vol. 22(1), pages 58-90, June.
    12. Sulekha Hembram & Souparna Maji & Sushil Kr. Haldar, 2019. "Club Convergence among the Major Indian States During 1982–2014: Does Investment in Human Capital Matter?," South Asia Economic Journal, Institute of Policy Studies of Sri Lanka, vol. 20(2), pages 184-204, September.
    13. Barnabé Walheer, 2016. "Multi-Sector Nonparametric Production-Frontier Analysis of the Economic Growth and the Convergence of the European Countries," Pacific Economic Review, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 21(4), pages 498-524, October.
    14. Sulekha Hembram & Sushil Kr. Haldar, 2019. "Beta, sigma and club convergence: Indian experience from 1980 to 2015," Indian Economic Review, Springer, vol. 54(2), pages 343-366, December.
    15. Cem Ertur & Julie Le Gallo & Catherine Baumont, 2006. "The European Regional Convergence Process, 1980-1995: Do Spatial Regimes and Spatial Dependence Matter?," International Regional Science Review, , vol. 29(1), pages 3-34, January.
    16. Chhavi Tiwari & Sankalpa Bhattacharjee & Debkumar Chakrabarti, 2020. "Investigating Regional Inequalities in India: Are Indian Districts Converging?," Journal of International Development, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 32(5), pages 684-716, July.
    17. Mendez-Guerra, Carlos, 2017. "Heterogeneous Growth and Regional (Di)Convergence in Bolivia: A Distribution Dynamics Approach," MPRA Paper 81060, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    18. Mendez-Guerra, Carlos, 2018. "Beta, Sigma and Distributional Convergence in Human Development? Evidence from the Metropolitan Regions of Bolivia," MPRA Paper 87627, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    19. Andreas Pyka & Jens J. Kruger & Uwe Cantner, 2003. "Twin Peaks: What the Knowledge-based Approach Can Say about the Dynamics of the World Income Distribution," Chapters, in: Pier Paolo Saviotti (ed.), Applied Evolutionary Economics, chapter 9, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    20. Juan Brida & Nicolás Garrido & Francesco Mureddu, 2014. "Italian economic dualism and convergence clubs at regional level," Quality & Quantity: International Journal of Methodology, Springer, vol. 48(1), pages 439-456, January.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:kap:jecinq:v:17:y:2019:i:2:d:10.1007_s10888-018-9398-6. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.springer.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.