IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/spr/soinre/v151y2020i3d10.1007_s11205-020-02411-x.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

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

Author

Listed:
  • Eni Dardha

    (Katholieke Universiteit Leuven (KULeuven))

  • Nicky Rogge

    (Katholieke Universiteit Leuven (KULeuven))

Abstract

This paper measures and analyses well-being in the 349 regions in OECD countries. It is argued that the multidimensional nature of well-being and the disparate policy priorities of nations/regions calls for a reconciliatory performance evaluation framework, for which this paper advocates the use of Benefit-of-the-Doubt (BoD) weighting. In particular, using the BoD-model, three multidimensional measures of regional well-being are computed: a material condition measure, a quality of life index and a subjective life satisfaction measure. To account for the presence of certain exogenous conditions in the regional policy environments, the conditional robust order-m version of the BoD-model is applied. Results show considerable between- and within-country disparity in regional performances across the three domains of well-being. Countries such as Australia, Canada, Norway and Iceland show consistently high levels of regional well-being. Consistently low performance levels are observed for Chile, Turkey and Poland.

Suggested Citation

  • 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.
    • Handle: RePEc:spr:soinre:v:151:y:2020:i:3:d:10.1007_s11205-020-02411-x
    DOI: 10.1007/s11205-020-02411-x
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s11205-020-02411-x
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1007/s11205-020-02411-x?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 search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. 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.
    2. Blanchflower, David G. & Oswald, Andrew J., 2008. "Is well-being U-shaped over the life cycle?," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 66(8), pages 1733-1749, April.
    3. Fusco, Elisa & Vidoli, Francesco & Rogge, Nicky, 2020. "Spatial directional robust Benefit of the Doubt approach in presence of undesirable output: An application to Italian waste sector," Omega, Elsevier, vol. 94(C).
    4. Cinzia Daraio & Léopold Simar, 2005. "Introducing Environmental Variables in Nonparametric Frontier Models: a Probabilistic Approach," Journal of Productivity Analysis, Springer, vol. 24(1), pages 93-121, September.
    5. Carlotta Balestra & Romina Boarini & Elena Tosetto, 2018. "What matters the most to people?: Evidence from the OECD Better Life Index users’ responses," OECD Statistics Working Papers 2018/3, OECD Publishing.
    6. Ingrid Robeyns, 2005. "The Capability Approach: a theoretical survey," Journal of Human Development and Capabilities, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 6(1), pages 93-117.
    7. Martin Ravallion, 2011. "On multidimensional indices of poverty," The Journal of Economic Inequality, Springer;Society for the Study of Economic Inequality, vol. 9(2), pages 235-248, June.
    8. Verschelde, Marijn & Rogge, Nicky, 2012. "An environment-adjusted evaluation of citizen satisfaction with local police effectiveness: Evidence from a conditional Data Envelopment Analysis approach," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 223(1), pages 214-225.
    9. Romina Boarini & Marco Mira D'Ercole, 2013. "Going beyond GDP: An OECD Perspective," Fiscal Studies, Institute for Fiscal Studies, vol. 34, pages 289-314, September.
    10. Badin, Luiza & Daraio, Cinzia & Simar, Léopold, 2010. "Optimal bandwidth selection for conditional efficiency measures: A data-driven approach," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 201(2), pages 633-640, March.
    11. Charnes, A. & Cooper, W. W. & Rhodes, E., 1978. "Measuring the efficiency of decision making units," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 2(6), pages 429-444, November.
    12. Fare, Rolf & Zelenyuk, Valentin, 2003. "On aggregate Farrell efficiencies," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 146(3), pages 615-620, May.
    13. Verbunt, Pim & Rogge, Nicky, 2018. "Geometric composite indicators with compromise Benefit-of-the-Doubt weights," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 264(1), pages 388-401.
    14. Koen Decancq & María Ana Lugo, 2013. "Weights in Multidimensional Indices of Wellbeing: An Overview," Econometric Reviews, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 32(1), pages 7-34, January.
    15. Andrea Saltelli, 2007. "Composite Indicators between Analysis and Advocacy," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 81(1), pages 65-77, March.
    16. Yunus Aksoy & Henrique S. Basso & Ron P. Smith & Tobias Grasl, 2019. "Demographic Structure and Macroeconomic Trends," American Economic Journal: Macroeconomics, American Economic Association, vol. 11(1), pages 193-222, January.
    17. Shyamal Chowdhury & Lyn Squire, 2006. "Setting weights for aggregate indices: An application to the commitment to development index and human development index," Journal of Development Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 42(5), pages 761-771.
    18. Koen Decancq, 2017. "Erratum to: Measuring Multidimensional Inequality in the OECD Member Countries with a Distribution-Sensitive Better Life Index," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 132(2), pages 951-951, June.
    19. Koen Decancq, 2017. "Measuring Multidimensional Inequality in the OECD Member Countries with a Distribution-Sensitive Better Life Index," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 131(3), pages 1057-1086, April.
    20. Zanella, Andreia & Camanho, Ana S. & Dias, Teresa G., 2015. "Undesirable outputs and weighting schemes in composite indicators based on data envelopment analysis," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 245(2), pages 517-530.
    21. Joseph Stiglitz & Amartya K. Sen & Jean-Paul Fitoussi, 2009. "The measurement of economic performance and social progress revisited: Reflections and Overview," SciencePo Working papers Main hal-01069384, HAL.
    22. Ed Diener & Robert Biswas-Diener, 2002. "Will Money Increase Subjective Well-Being?," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 57(2), pages 119-169, February.
    23. Marc Fleurbaey, 2009. "Beyond GDP: The Quest for a Measure of Social Welfare," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 47(4), pages 1029-1075, December.
    24. M. Marković & S. Zdravković & M. Mitrović & A. Radojičić, 2016. "An Iterative Multivariate Post Hoc I-Distance Approach in Evaluating OECD Better Life Index," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 126(1), pages 1-19, March.
    25. Carlotta Balestra & Romina Boarini & Elena Tosetto, 2018. "What Matters Most to People? Evidence from the OECD Better Life Index Users’ Responses," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 136(3), pages 907-930, April.
    26. Ruut Veenhoven, 2000. "The Four Qualities of Life," Journal of Happiness Studies, Springer, vol. 1(1), pages 1-39, March.
    27. Susan E. Mayer & Christopher Jencks, 1989. "Poverty and the Distribution of Material Hardship," Journal of Human Resources, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 24(1), pages 88-114.
    28. Raquel Lourenço Carvalhal Monteiro & Valdecy Pereira & Helder Gomes Costa, 2019. "Analysis of the Better Life Index Trough a Cluster Algorithm," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 142(2), pages 477-506, April.
    29. 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.
    30. Zhou, P. & Ang, B.W. & Poh, K.L., 2007. "A mathematical programming approach to constructing composite indicators," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 62(2), pages 291-297, April.
    31. Cazals, Catherine & Florens, Jean-Pierre & Simar, Leopold, 2002. "Nonparametric frontier estimation: a robust approach," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 106(1), pages 1-25, January.
    32. Easterlin, Richard A., 2001. "Subjective well-being and economic analysis: a brief introduction," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 45(3), pages 225-226, July.
    33. Ed Diener, 2006. "Guidelines for National Indicators of Subjective Well-Being and Ill-Being," Journal of Happiness Studies, Springer, vol. 7(4), pages 397-404, November.
    34. Ed Diener & Eunkook Suh, 1997. "Measuring Quality Of Life: Economic, Social, And Subjective Indicators," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 40(1), pages 189-216, January.
    35. Ruut Veenhoven, 1991. "Is happiness relative?," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 24(1), pages 1-34, February.
    36. 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.
    37. Rogge, Nicky & De Jaeger, Simon & Lavigne, Carolien, 2017. "Waste Performance of NUTS 2-regions in the EU: A Conditional Directional Distance Benefit-of-the-Doubt Model," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 139(C), pages 19-32.
    38. Joseph E. Stiglitz & Amartya Sen & Jean-Paul Fitoussi, 2009. "The measurement of economic performance and social progress revisited," Documents de Travail de l'OFCE 2009-33, Observatoire Francais des Conjonctures Economiques (OFCE).
    39. Seok-Oh Jeong & Byeong Park & Léopold Simar, 2010. "Nonparametric conditional efficiency measures: asymptotic properties," Annals of Operations Research, Springer, vol. 173(1), pages 105-122, January.
    40. Nicky Rogge & Emilia Konttinen, 2018. "Social Inclusion in the EU Since the Enlargement: Progress or Regress?," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 135(2), pages 563-584, January.
    41. Verschelde, Marijn & Rogge, Nicky, 2012. "An environment-adjusted evaluation of local police e ectiveness: evidence from a conditional Data Envelopment Analysis approach," Working Papers 2012/09, Hogeschool-Universiteit Brussel, Faculteit Economie en Management.
    42. Hideyuki Mizobuchi, 2017. "Incorporating Sustainability Concerns in the Better Life Index: Application of Corrected Convex Non-parametric Least Squares Method," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 131(3), pages 947-971, April.
    43. Laurens Cherchye & Willem Moesen & Nicky Rogge & Tom Puyenbroeck, 2007. "An Introduction to ‘Benefit of the Doubt’ Composite Indicators," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 82(1), pages 111-145, May.
    44. Giuseppe Carone & Declan Costello & Nuria Diez Guardia & Gilles Mourre & Bartosz Przywara & Aino Salomaki, 2005. "The economic impact of ageing populations in the EU25 Member States," European Economy - Economic Papers 2008 - 2015 236, Directorate General Economic and Financial Affairs (DG ECFIN), European Commission.
    45. Barro, Robert J, 2000. "Inequality and Growth in a Panel of Countries," Journal of Economic Growth, Springer, vol. 5(1), pages 5-32, March.
    46. Ed Diener & Ed Sandvik & Larry Seidlitz & Marissa Diener, 1993. "The relationship between income and subjective well-being: Relative or absolute?," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 28(3), pages 195-223, March.
    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. Rosalia Castellano & Gabriella Bernardo & Gennaro Punzo, 2023. "Well-being in OECD countries: an assessment of technical and social efficiency using data envelopment analysis," International Review of Economics, Springer;Happiness Economics and Interpersonal Relations (HEIRS), vol. 70(2), pages 141-176, June.
    2. Zeynep Elburz & Karima Kourtit & Peter Nijkamp, 2022. "Well-Being and Geography: Modelling Differences in Regional Well-Being Profiles in Case of Spatial Dependence—Evidence from Turkey," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(24), pages 1-15, December.
    3. Mergoni, Anna & D'Inverno, Giovanna & Carosi, Laura, 2022. "A composite indicator for measuring the environmental performance of water, wastewater, and solid waste utilities," Utilities Policy, Elsevier, vol. 74(C).

    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. Fusco, Elisa, 2023. "Potential improvements approach in composite indicators construction: The Multi-directional Benefit of the Doubt model," Socio-Economic Planning Sciences, Elsevier, vol. 85(C).
    2. Greco, Salvatore & Ishizaka, Alessio & Tasiou, Menelaos & Torrisi, Gianpiero, 2019. "Sigma-Mu efficiency analysis: A methodology for evaluating units through composite indicators," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 278(3), pages 942-960.
    3. Salvatore Greco & Alessio Ishizaka & Menelaos Tasiou & Gianpiero Torrisi, 2019. "On the Methodological Framework of Composite Indices: A Review of the Issues of Weighting, Aggregation, and Robustness," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 141(1), pages 61-94, January.
    4. Tahsin Mehdi, 2019. "Stochastic Dominance Approach to OECD’s Better Life Index," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 143(3), pages 917-954, June.
    5. Kristof Witte & Nicky Rogge, 2010. "To publish or not to publish? On the aggregation and drivers of research performance," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 85(3), pages 657-680, December.
    6. De Witte, Kristof & Schiltz, Fritz, 2018. "Measuring and explaining organizational effectiveness of school districts: Evidence from a robust and conditional Benefit-of-the-Doubt approach," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 267(3), pages 1172-1181.
    7. 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.
    8. Rogge, Nicky & Archer, Geoffrey, 2021. "Measuring and analyzing country change in establishing ease of doing business using a revised version of World Bank's ease of doing business index," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 290(1), pages 373-385.
    9. Giménez, Víctor & Prior, Diego & Thieme, Claudio & Tortosa-Ausina, Emili, 2024. "International comparisons of COVID-19 pandemic management: What can be learned from activity analysis techniques?," Omega, Elsevier, vol. 122(C).
    10. Fusco, Elisa & Vidoli, Francesco & Sahoo, Biresh K., 2018. "Spatial heterogeneity in composite indicator: A methodological proposal," Omega, Elsevier, vol. 77(C), pages 1-14.
    11. Vilarinho, Hermilio & D’Inverno, Giovanna & Nóvoa, Henriqueta & Camanho, Ana S., 2023. "The measurement of asset management performance of water companies," Socio-Economic Planning Sciences, Elsevier, vol. 87(PA).
    12. Mergoni, Anna & D'Inverno, Giovanna & Carosi, Laura, 2022. "A composite indicator for measuring the environmental performance of water, wastewater, and solid waste utilities," Utilities Policy, Elsevier, vol. 74(C).
    13. Rogge, Nicky & De Jaeger, Simon & Lavigne, Carolien, 2017. "Waste Performance of NUTS 2-regions in the EU: A Conditional Directional Distance Benefit-of-the-Doubt Model," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 139(C), pages 19-32.
    14. Milica Maricic & Jose A. Egea & Veljko Jeremic, 2019. "A Hybrid Enhanced Scatter Search—Composite I-Distance Indicator (eSS-CIDI) Optimization Approach for Determining Weights Within Composite Indicators," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 144(2), pages 497-537, July.
    15. Rogge, Nicky, 2018. "Composite indicators as generalized benefit-of-the-doubt weighted averages," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 267(1), pages 381-392.
    16. Greco, Salvatore & Ishizaka, Alessio & Tasiou, Menelaos & Torrisi, Gianpiero, 2018. "σ-µ efficiency analysis: A new methodology for evaluating units through composite indices," MPRA Paper 83569, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    17. Jesús Peiró-Palomino & Andrés J. Picazo-Tadeo, 2018. "Assessing well-being in European regions. Does government quality matter?," Working Papers 2018/06, Economics Department, Universitat Jaume I, Castellón (Spain).
    18. Cinzia Daraio & Léopold Simar & Paul W. Wilson, 2020. "Fast and efficient computation of directional distance estimators," Annals of Operations Research, Springer, vol. 288(2), pages 805-835, May.
    19. D’Inverno, Giovanna & De Witte, Kristof, 2020. "Service level provision in municipalities: A flexible directional distance composite indicator," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 286(3), pages 1129-1141.
    20. Cordero, José Manuel & Salinas-Jiménez, Javier & Salinas-Jiménez, M Mar, 2017. "Exploring factors affecting the level of happiness across countries: A conditional robust nonparametric frontier analysis," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 256(2), pages 663-672.

    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:spr:soinre:v:151:y:2020:i:3:d:10.1007_s11205-020-02411-x. 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.