IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/wly/sustdv/v30y2022i1p139-148.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Toward better measurement of sustainable development and wellbeing: A small number of SDG indicators reliably predict life satisfaction

Author

Listed:
  • Ida Kubiszewski
  • Kenneth Mulder
  • Diane Jarvis
  • Robert Costanza

Abstract

In 2015, all 193 member states of the United Nations (UN) adopted the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). These 17 goals, 169 targets, and 232 indicators (including over 650 indicators if all the subdivisions are included) are intended to guide and improve sustainable wellbeing and life satisfaction for everyone on earth. Challenges include the fact that many indicators are not measured or reliably tracked in many countries, the cost of tracking is unclear, and no explicit overarching goal exists. To highlight some of the problems with this approach, we model life satisfaction (LS) survey scores by country, as a proxy for overall wellbeing, as the dependent variable against the official 232 SDG indicators. Using a constrained linear regression approach (LASSO), we identify a model that includes only 8 of the 232 indicators and explains 84% of the variation in LS. These eight indicators are proxies for economic, social, and environmental variables. We also cluster countries according to these indicators and LS showing correlation within geographical and cultural regions. We discuss these results with regard to the meaning and measurement of sustainable development vs. sustainable wellbeing and its relationship with LS and the SDGs. We recommend how these results can be used to prioritize goals and measurement efforts to create more meaningful and useful measures of sustainable wellbeing.

Suggested Citation

  • Ida Kubiszewski & Kenneth Mulder & Diane Jarvis & Robert Costanza, 2022. "Toward better measurement of sustainable development and wellbeing: A small number of SDG indicators reliably predict life satisfaction," Sustainable Development, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 30(1), pages 139-148, February.
    • Handle: RePEc:wly:sustdv:v:30:y:2022:i:1:p:139-148
    DOI: 10.1002/sd.2234
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.1002/sd.2234
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1002/sd.2234?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
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Paolo Verme, 2011. "Life Satisfaction And Income Inequality," Review of Income and Wealth, International Association for Research in Income and Wealth, vol. 57(1), pages 111-127, March.
    2. Kubiszewski, Ida & Jarvis, Diane & Zakariyya, Nabeeh, 2019. "Spatial variations in contributors to life satisfaction: An Australian case study," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 164(C), pages 1-1.
    3. van Buuren, Stef & Groothuis-Oudshoorn, Karin, 2011. "mice: Multivariate Imputation by Chained Equations in R," Journal of Statistical Software, Foundation for Open Access Statistics, vol. 45(i03).
    4. Richard Layard, 2006. "Happiness and Public Policy: a Challenge to the Profession," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 116(510), pages 24-33, March.
    5. Andrew E. Clark & Ed Diener & Yannis Georgellis & Richard E. Lucas, 2008. "Lags And Leads in Life Satisfaction: a Test of the Baseline Hypothesis," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 118(529), pages 222-243, June.
    6. Christopher Ambrey & Christopher Fleming & Matthew Manning, 2014. "Perception or Reality, What Matters Most When it Comes to Crime in Your Neighbourhood?," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 119(2), pages 877-896, November.
    7. Cameron Allen & Graciela Metternicht & Thomas Wiedmann, 2017. "An Iterative Framework for National Scenario Modelling for the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)," Sustainable Development, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 25(5), pages 372-385, September.
    8. Welsch, Heinz, 2006. "Environment and happiness: Valuation of air pollution using life satisfaction data," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 58(4), pages 801-813, July.
    9. Eugenio Proto & Aldo Rustichini, 2013. "A Reassessment of the Relationship between GDP and Life Satisfaction," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 8(11), pages 1-10, November.
    10. Easterlin, Richard A., 2009. "Lost in transition: Life satisfaction on the road to capitalism," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 71(2), pages 130-145, August.
    11. Måns Nilsson & Dave Griggs & Martin Visbeck, 2016. "Policy: Map the interactions between Sustainable Development Goals," Nature, Nature, vol. 534(7607), pages 320-322, June.
    12. Kubiszewski, Ida & Farley, Joshua & Costanza, Robert, 2010. "The production and allocation of information as a good that is enhanced with increased use," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 69(6), pages 1344-1354, April.
    13. Fadime Aksoy & Nuran Bayram Arlı, 2020. "Evaluation of sustainable happiness with Sustainable Development Goals: Structural equation model approach," Sustainable Development, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 28(1), pages 385-392, January.
    14. Kubiszewski, Ida & Zakariyya, Nabeeh & Costanza, Robert, 2018. "Objective and Subjective Indicators of Life Satisfaction in Australia: How Well Do People Perceive What Supports a Good Life?," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 154(C), pages 361-372.
    15. Kubiszewski, Ida & Costanza, Robert & Franco, Carol & Lawn, Philip & Talberth, John & Jackson, Tim & Aylmer, Camille, 2013. "Beyond GDP: Measuring and achieving global genuine progress," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 93(C), pages 57-68.
    16. Jeffrey D. Sachs & Guido Schmidt-Traub & Mariana Mazzucato & Dirk Messner & Nebojsa Nakicenovic & Johan Rockström, 2019. "Six Transformations to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals," Nature Sustainability, Nature, vol. 2(9), pages 805-814, September.
    17. Friedman, Jerome H. & Hastie, Trevor & Tibshirani, Rob, 2010. "Regularization Paths for Generalized Linear Models via Coordinate Descent," Journal of Statistical Software, Foundation for Open Access Statistics, vol. 33(i01).
    18. Ferreira, Susana & Akay, Alpaslan & Brereton, Finbarr & Cuñado, Juncal & Martinsson, Peter & Moro, Mirko & Ningal, Tine F., 2013. "Life satisfaction and air quality in Europe," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 88(C), pages 1-10.
    19. Serge Kapto, 2019. "Layers of Politics and Power Struggles in the SDG Indicators Process," Global Policy, London School of Economics and Political Science, vol. 10(S1), pages 134-136, January.
    20. Stephen Morse, 2016. "Measuring the Success of Sustainable Development Indices in Terms of Reporting by the Global Press," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 125(2), pages 359-375, January.
    21. Allen, Cameron & Metternicht, Graciela & Wiedmann, Thomas, 2016. "National pathways to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs): A comparative review of scenario modelling tools," Environmental Science & Policy, Elsevier, vol. 66(C), pages 199-207.
    22. Carol Graham, 2011. "Adaptation amidst Prosperity and Adversity: Insights from Happiness Studies from around the World," The World Bank Research Observer, World Bank, vol. 26(1), pages 105-137, February.
    23. Vorisek,Dana Lauren & Yu,Shu, 2020. "Understanding the Cost of Achieving the Sustainable Development Goals," Policy Research Working Paper Series 9164, The World Bank.
    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. Idiano D'Adamo & Massimo Gastaldi & Ilhan Ozturk, 2023. "The sustainable development of mobility in the green transition: Renewable energy, local industrial chain, and battery recycling," Sustainable Development, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 31(2), pages 840-852, April.
    2. Hirose, Junichi & Kotani, Koji & Managi, Shunsuke, 2023. "Do autonomy and inquisitiveness contribute to SDGs? Implications from the matrilineal island of Palau," Economic Analysis and Policy, Elsevier, vol. 79(C), pages 303-318.
    3. Cook, David & Kaji, Takeshi Benjamín & Davíðsdóttir, Brynhildur, 2023. "An assessment of the scope and comprehensiveness of well-being economy indicator sets: The cases of Iceland, Scotland and New Zealand," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 205(C).
    4. Maryna Brychko & Yuriy Bilan & Serhiy Lyeonov & Dalia Streimikiene, 2023. "Do changes in the business environment and sustainable development really matter for enhancing enterprise development?," Sustainable Development, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 31(2), pages 587-599, April.
    5. Juan A. García-Esparza & Javier Pardo & Pablo Altaba & Mario Alberich, 2023. "Validity of Machine Learning in Assessing Large Texts Through Sustainability Indicators," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 166(2), pages 323-337, April.
    6. Cristi Spulbar & Lucian Claudiu Anghel & Ramona Birau & Simona Ioana Ermiș & Laurențiu-Mihai Treapăt & Adrian T. Mitroi, 2022. "Digitalization as a Factor in Reducing Poverty and Its Implications in the Context of the COVID-19 Pandemic," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(17), pages 1-26, August.
    7. Evita Milana & Frank Ulrich, 2022. "Do open innovation practices in firms promote sustainability?," Sustainable Development, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 30(6), pages 1718-1732, December.
    8. Jingru Chen & Hengyuan Zeng & Qiang Gao, 2023. "Using the Sustainable Development Capacity of Key Counties to Guide Rural Revitalization in China," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 20(5), pages 1-26, February.
    9. Katherine S. Nelson & Tuan D. Nguyen & Jean R. Francois & Shreya Ojha, 2023. "Rural sustainability methods, drivers, and outcomes: A systematic review," Sustainable Development, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 31(3), pages 1226-1249, June.
    10. Fabrizio Battisti, 2023. "SDGs and ESG Criteria in Housing: Defining Local Evaluation Criteria and Indicators for Verifying Project Sustainability Using Florence Metropolitan Area as a Case Study," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(12), pages 1-37, June.
    11. Henderson, Kirsten & Loreau, Michel, 2023. "A model of Sustainable Development Goals: Challenges and opportunities in promoting human well-being and environmental sustainability," Ecological Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 475(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. Phil Lignier & Diane Jarvis & Daniel Grainger & Taha Chaiechi, 2024. "Spatial Heterogeneity and Subjective Wellbeing: Exploring the Role of Social Capital in Metropolitan Areas Using Multilevel Modelling," Journal of Happiness Studies, Springer, vol. 25(5), pages 1-23, June.
    2. Kubiszewski, Ida & Zakariyya, Nabeeh & Costanza, Robert, 2018. "Objective and Subjective Indicators of Life Satisfaction in Australia: How Well Do People Perceive What Supports a Good Life?," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 154(C), pages 361-372.
    3. Kubiszewski, Ida & Jarvis, Diane & Zakariyya, Nabeeh, 2019. "Spatial variations in contributors to life satisfaction: An Australian case study," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 164(C), pages 1-1.
    4. Welsch, Heinz & Ferreira, Susana, 2014. "Environment, Well-Being, and Experienced Preference," International Review of Environmental and Resource Economics, now publishers, vol. 7(3-4), pages 205-239, December.
    5. O'Donnell, Gus & Oswald, Andrew J., 2015. "National well-being policy and a weighted approach to human feelings," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 120(C), pages 59-70.
    6. Seyed Meysam Khoshnava & Raheleh Rostami & Rosli Mohamad Zin & Dalia Štreimikienė & Alireza Yousefpour & Wadim Strielkowski & Abbas Mardani, 2019. "Aligning the Criteria of Green Economy (GE) and Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) to Implement Sustainable Development," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(17), pages 1-23, August.
    7. Stutzer, Alois & Frey, Bruno S., 2012. "Recent Developments in the Economics of Happiness: A Selective Overview," IZA Discussion Papers 7078, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    8. Cameron Allen & Graciela Metternicht & Thomas Wiedmann, 2021. "Priorities for science to support national implementation of the sustainable development goals: A review of progress and gaps," Sustainable Development, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 29(4), pages 635-652, July.
    9. Johannes Emmerling & Paula Navarro & Matthew R. Sisco, 2021. "Subjective Well-Being at the Macro Level—Empirics and Future Scenarios," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 157(3), pages 899-928, October.
    10. Yenniel Mendoza & Roger Loyola & Alonso Aguilar & Roberto Escalante, 2019. "Valuation of Air Quality in Chile: The Life Satisfaction Approach," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 145(1), pages 367-387, August.
    11. Yi Cheng & Haimeng Liu & Shaobin Wang & Xuegang Cui & Qirui Li, 2021. "Global Action on SDGs: Policy Review and Outlook in a Post-Pandemic Era," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(11), pages 1-25, June.
    12. Senik, Claudia, 2009. "Direct evidence on income comparisons and their welfare effects," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 72(1), pages 408-424, October.
    13. Mengmeng Meng & Weiguo Fan & Jianchang Lu & Xiaobin Dong & Hejie Wei, 2020. "Research on the Influence of Energy Utilization and Economic Development on Human Well-Being in Qinghai-Tibet Plateau," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(1), pages 1-26, December.
    14. Christopher J Greenwood & George J Youssef & Primrose Letcher & Jacqui A Macdonald & Lauryn J Hagg & Ann Sanson & Jenn Mcintosh & Delyse M Hutchinson & John W Toumbourou & Matthew Fuller-Tyszkiewicz &, 2020. "A comparison of penalised regression methods for informing the selection of predictive markers," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 15(11), pages 1-14, November.
    15. Christopher Kath & Florian Ziel, 2018. "The value of forecasts: Quantifying the economic gains of accurate quarter-hourly electricity price forecasts," Papers 1811.08604, arXiv.org.
    16. Hametner, Markus, 2022. "Economics without ecology: How the SDGs fail to align socioeconomic development with environmental sustainability," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 199(C).
    17. Frijters, Paul & Johnston, David W. & Knott, Rachel & Torgler, Benno, 2021. "Resilience to Disaster: Evidence from Daily Wellbeing Data," IZA Discussion Papers 14220, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    18. David Tremblay & François Fortier & Jean‐François Boucher & Olivier Riffon & Claude Villeneuve, 2020. "Sustainable development goal interactions: An analysis based on the five pillars of the 2030 agenda," Sustainable Development, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 28(6), pages 1584-1596, November.
    19. Iddisah Sulemana, 2015. "The Effect of Fear of Crime and Crime Victimization on Subjective Well-Being in Africa," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 121(3), pages 849-872, April.
    20. Nikolova, Milena, 2016. "Minding the happiness gap: Political institutions and perceived quality of life in transition," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 45(S), pages 129-148.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    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:wly:sustdv:v:30:y:2022:i:1:p:139-148. 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: Wiley Content Delivery (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/journal/10.1002/(ISSN)1099-1719 .

    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.