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Human Well-being: Concepts and Conceptualizations

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  • Des Gasper

Abstract

Economic measures of income have ignored large areas of human well-being and are poor measures of well-being in the areas to which they attend. Despite increased recognition of those distortions, 'GNP per capita continues to be regarded as the quintessential indicator of a country's living standard' (Partha Dasgupta). Well-being seems to have intuitive plausibility as a concept, but in practice we encounter a bewilderingly diverse family of concepts and approaches, partly reflecting different contexts, purposes, and foci of attention.

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  • Des Gasper, 2004. "Human Well-being: Concepts and Conceptualizations," WIDER Working Paper Series DP2004-06, World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER).
    • Handle: RePEc:unu:wpaper:dp2004-06
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    Cited by:

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    2. Bérenger Bérenger & Audrey Chouchane, 2008. "Working Paper 94 - Des inégalités de genre à l’indice de qualité de vie des femmes," Working Paper Series 229, African Development Bank.
    3. Ribas, Aline & Lucena, André F.P. & Schaeffer, Roberto, 2017. "Bridging the energy divide and securing higher collective well-being in a climate-constrained world," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 108(C), pages 435-450.
    4. AfDB AfDB, 2008. "Working Paper 94 - Des inégalités de genre à l’indice de qualité de vie des femmes," Working Paper Series 2227, African Development Bank.
    5. Mabsout, Ramzi, 2015. "Mindful capability," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 112(C), pages 86-97.
    6. Stephan Klasen, 2004. "Gender-Related Indicators of Well-Being," Ibero America Institute for Econ. Research (IAI) Discussion Papers 102, Ibero-America Institute for Economic Research.
    7. Kant, Shashi & Vertinsky, Ilan & Zheng, Bin & Smith, Peggy M., 2014. "Multi-Domain Subjective Wellbeing of Two Canadian First Nations Communities," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 64(C), pages 140-157.
    8. Lance Newey & Rui Torres Oliveira, 2019. "Wellbeing as Emergent from the Leveraging of Polarities: Harnessing Component Interdependencies," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 144(2), pages 575-600, July.
    9. Isabel Neira & Fernando Bruna & Marta Portela & Adela García-Aracil, 2018. "Individual Well-Being, Geographical Heterogeneity and Social Capital," Journal of Happiness Studies, Springer, vol. 19(4), pages 1067-1090, April.
    10. Waldo Krugell & W.a. Naudé & Stephanie Rossouw, 2000. "The Quality of Metropolitan City Life in South Africa," Regional and Urban Modeling 283600049, EcoMod.
    11. Vanessa Sha Fan & Renuka Mahadevan, 2019. "The Role of Social Capital and Remote Chinese Villagers’ Well-Being," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 143(3), pages 1109-1128, June.
    12. Megan King & Vivian Renó & Evlyn Novo, 2014. "The Concept, Dimensions and Methods of Assessment of Human Well-Being within a Socioecological Context: A Literature Review," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 116(3), pages 681-698, May.
    13. Lauri Peterson, 2014. "The Measurement of Non-economic Inequality in Well-Being Indices," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 119(2), pages 581-598, November.
    14. Gasper, D.R., 2006. "What is the capability approach?: its core, rationale, partners and dangers," ISS Working Papers - General Series 19187, International Institute of Social Studies of Erasmus University Rotterdam (ISS), The Hague.
    15. Cifuentes, Myriam Patricia & Doogan, Nathan J. & Fernandez, Soledad A. & Seiber, Eric E., 2016. "Factors shaping Americans’ objective well-being: A systems science approach with network analysis," Journal of Policy Modeling, Elsevier, vol. 38(6), pages 1018-1039.
    16. Brent Bleys, 2012. "Beyond GDP: Classifying Alternative Measures for Progress," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 109(3), pages 355-376, December.
    17. Gasper, Des, 2007. "What is the capability approach?: Its core, rationale, partners and dangers," Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics (formerly The Journal of Socio-Economics), Elsevier, vol. 36(3), pages 335-359, June.
    18. AfDB AfDB, 2008. "Working Paper 94 - Des inégalités de genre à l’indice de qualité de vie des femmes," Working Paper Series 2307, African Development Bank.
    19. Karin Amit & Ilan Riss, 2014. "The Subjective Well-Being of Immigrants: Pre- and Post-migration," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 119(1), pages 247-264, October.

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