Disparities In Economic Wellbeing Among Regions: The Case Of Spanish And Italian Objective 1 Regions

Moving beyond a traditional view of economic wellbeing, this paper analyzes economic well-being disparities between 38 Spanish and Italian regions and compares them with those derived from the traditional GDP per capita indicator. The paper suggests a synthetic indicator of regional economic wellbeing based on Osberg’s (1985) four components: consumption capacity, accumulation, inequality, and economic insecurity. These aspects are integrated in an single index by using the “Benefit-of-the-doubt” approach, a Data Envelopment Analysis model. The results show that the regions with less per capita GDP (EO Objective 1) are also those with lower levels of economic wellbeing. Yet, differences in terms of wellbeing are larger than those in terms of GDP per capita. Nevertheless, “poor” Italian regions have a better behaviour on economic wellbeing terms than “poor” Spanish ones. Galicia is among the few exceptions, enjoying an economic wellbeing larger that would be expected from its per capita product.