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Papers by Carlotta Balestra
Handbook of Research on Economic and Social Well-Being
The chapter presents an overview of several challenging issues related to the assessment of well-... more The chapter presents an overview of several challenging issues related to the assessment of well-being through measures aimed at looking ‘beyond GDP’. Although designed to measure aggregate economic performance from a macroeconomic perspective, gross domestoc product (GDP) has been extensively used to measure welfare, with a number of problems and limitations. Starting from the mid-1970s, criticisms to this approach encouraged early attempts to create alternative measures for GDP. The Great Recession and inequality considerations further prompted the discussion through national and international initiatives. These gave birth to a set of measures and frameworks which focus more on the individuals, entailing considerations on the distribution of well-being, multidimensionality and subjective perceptions. The chapter reviews some of these measures, addressing the main issues and techniques as well as outlining the greatest statistical challenges linked to the measurement of progress and well-being.
The Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) has a long tradition of work on... more The Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) has a long tradition of work on social indicators and quality of life. More recently, the OECD has been leading the international reflection on measuring well-being and societal progress. Building on almost ten years of OECD work on progress, how's life? is a first attempt at the international level to go beyond the conceptual stage and to present a large set of comparable well-being indicators for OECD countries and, to the extent possible, other major economies. One important objective of this report is to take stock of the quality and comprehensiveness of existing well-being statistics. Such an assessment is critical in order to move the statistical agenda forward and to ensure that statistics evolve in line with the needs of policy-makers and the general public. To that end, each chapter of this report discusses the validity of existing measures in the various well-being dimensions and provides a roadmap of th...
OECD Statistics Working Papers, 2018
Informing the policy dialogue on inclusive growth SDD WORKING PAPER No. 100
OECD Statistics Working Papers, 2018
How do OECD countries collect data on ethnic, racial and indigenous identity? SDD WORKING PAPER N... more How do OECD countries collect data on ethnic, racial and indigenous identity? SDD WORKING PAPER No. 96
Social Indicators Research, 2017
What matters the most to people? Evidence from the OECD Better Life Index users' responses WORKIN... more What matters the most to people? Evidence from the OECD Better Life Index users' responses WORKING PAPER No.90 This paper investigates the factors shaping the OECD Better Life Index users' preferences over a set of 11 well-being dimensions.
OECD Statistics Working Papers, 2013
Organisation de Coopération et de Développement Économiques Organisation for Economic Cooperation... more Organisation de Coopération et de Développement Économiques Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development 23-Dec-2013 ___________________________________________________________________________________________ English-Or. English STATISTICS DIRECTORATE HOME SWEET HOME: THE DETERMINANTS OF RESIDENTIAL SATISFACTION AND ITS RELATION WITH WELL-BEING WORKING PAPER No. 54.
Social Indicators Research, 2014
Designing well-being policies often requires the use of qualitative data. In fact many dimensions... more Designing well-being policies often requires the use of qualitative data. In fact many dimensions of well-being have to be appraised through the use of an ordered status: that is the case with health, happiness and educational attainments. While it is important to look at the mean levels achieved by society, distributional features are also salient aspects for any evaluation exercises, as it is likely that strong disparities in achievements among the population will prevail in those dimensions. Nonetheless, standards tools for inequality analysis, essentially mean-based and thus scale-dependent, are not applicable in this context, as any choice of scale in an ordinal framework is likely to be arbitrary and subject to change. Relying on the median-based approach developed by Allison and Foster (J Health Econ 23:505-524, 2004) for the measurement of self-reported health status inequality, this paper applies scale-invariant measures to subjective well-being and educational attainments in OECD countries using the 2010 round of the Gallup World Poll. This scale-invariant approach, applied to the case of three-category ordinal variables with identical median states, generates an unambiguous inequality and welfare ordering. This ranking is further completed by the computation of a scale-invariant inequality index. Both these measures aim to provide a robust picture of inequality and welfare in an ordinal context.
Journal of Population Economics, 2011
Both environmental quality and health care expenditure are determinants of health and life expect... more Both environmental quality and health care expenditure are determinants of health and life expectancy, but the support for them appears to be different according to the electors' age, with a relatively larger support for health expenditure among the elderly as it is generally effective on a shorter horizon than environmental maintenance. With population aging, the political support for health care expenditure is then selfreinforcing. We cast this issue in an overlapping generations model with endogenous longevity, where lifespan depends on health care expenditure and environmental quality. We compare the long run outcomes for health care expenditure, environmental quality, lifespan, consumption and capital accumulation of an economy where agents vote over health spending and environmental maintenance, with those chosen by a social planner who takes into account also the welfare of future generations. The role played by other factors, such as the propensity for smoothing consumption or the degree of annuity markets, is also highlighted. Empirical evidence of age-biased environmental care is provided.
OECD Statistics Working Papers, 2018
This document, as well as any data and map included herein, are without prejudice to the status o... more This document, as well as any data and map included herein, are without prejudice to the status of or sovereignty over any territory, to the delimitation of international frontiers and boundaries and to the name of any territory, city or area.
Handbook of Research on Economic and Social Well-Being
The chapter presents an overview of several challenging issues related to the assessment of well-... more The chapter presents an overview of several challenging issues related to the assessment of well-being through measures aimed at looking ‘beyond GDP’. Although designed to measure aggregate economic performance from a macroeconomic perspective, gross domestoc product (GDP) has been extensively used to measure welfare, with a number of problems and limitations. Starting from the mid-1970s, criticisms to this approach encouraged early attempts to create alternative measures for GDP. The Great Recession and inequality considerations further prompted the discussion through national and international initiatives. These gave birth to a set of measures and frameworks which focus more on the individuals, entailing considerations on the distribution of well-being, multidimensionality and subjective perceptions. The chapter reviews some of these measures, addressing the main issues and techniques as well as outlining the greatest statistical challenges linked to the measurement of progress and well-being.
The Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) has a long tradition of work on... more The Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) has a long tradition of work on social indicators and quality of life. More recently, the OECD has been leading the international reflection on measuring well-being and societal progress. Building on almost ten years of OECD work on progress, how's life? is a first attempt at the international level to go beyond the conceptual stage and to present a large set of comparable well-being indicators for OECD countries and, to the extent possible, other major economies. One important objective of this report is to take stock of the quality and comprehensiveness of existing well-being statistics. Such an assessment is critical in order to move the statistical agenda forward and to ensure that statistics evolve in line with the needs of policy-makers and the general public. To that end, each chapter of this report discusses the validity of existing measures in the various well-being dimensions and provides a roadmap of th...
OECD Statistics Working Papers, 2018
Informing the policy dialogue on inclusive growth SDD WORKING PAPER No. 100
OECD Statistics Working Papers, 2018
How do OECD countries collect data on ethnic, racial and indigenous identity? SDD WORKING PAPER N... more How do OECD countries collect data on ethnic, racial and indigenous identity? SDD WORKING PAPER No. 96
Social Indicators Research, 2017
What matters the most to people? Evidence from the OECD Better Life Index users' responses WORKIN... more What matters the most to people? Evidence from the OECD Better Life Index users' responses WORKING PAPER No.90 This paper investigates the factors shaping the OECD Better Life Index users' preferences over a set of 11 well-being dimensions.
OECD Statistics Working Papers, 2013
Organisation de Coopération et de Développement Économiques Organisation for Economic Cooperation... more Organisation de Coopération et de Développement Économiques Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development 23-Dec-2013 ___________________________________________________________________________________________ English-Or. English STATISTICS DIRECTORATE HOME SWEET HOME: THE DETERMINANTS OF RESIDENTIAL SATISFACTION AND ITS RELATION WITH WELL-BEING WORKING PAPER No. 54.
Social Indicators Research, 2014
Designing well-being policies often requires the use of qualitative data. In fact many dimensions... more Designing well-being policies often requires the use of qualitative data. In fact many dimensions of well-being have to be appraised through the use of an ordered status: that is the case with health, happiness and educational attainments. While it is important to look at the mean levels achieved by society, distributional features are also salient aspects for any evaluation exercises, as it is likely that strong disparities in achievements among the population will prevail in those dimensions. Nonetheless, standards tools for inequality analysis, essentially mean-based and thus scale-dependent, are not applicable in this context, as any choice of scale in an ordinal framework is likely to be arbitrary and subject to change. Relying on the median-based approach developed by Allison and Foster (J Health Econ 23:505-524, 2004) for the measurement of self-reported health status inequality, this paper applies scale-invariant measures to subjective well-being and educational attainments in OECD countries using the 2010 round of the Gallup World Poll. This scale-invariant approach, applied to the case of three-category ordinal variables with identical median states, generates an unambiguous inequality and welfare ordering. This ranking is further completed by the computation of a scale-invariant inequality index. Both these measures aim to provide a robust picture of inequality and welfare in an ordinal context.
Journal of Population Economics, 2011
Both environmental quality and health care expenditure are determinants of health and life expect... more Both environmental quality and health care expenditure are determinants of health and life expectancy, but the support for them appears to be different according to the electors' age, with a relatively larger support for health expenditure among the elderly as it is generally effective on a shorter horizon than environmental maintenance. With population aging, the political support for health care expenditure is then selfreinforcing. We cast this issue in an overlapping generations model with endogenous longevity, where lifespan depends on health care expenditure and environmental quality. We compare the long run outcomes for health care expenditure, environmental quality, lifespan, consumption and capital accumulation of an economy where agents vote over health spending and environmental maintenance, with those chosen by a social planner who takes into account also the welfare of future generations. The role played by other factors, such as the propensity for smoothing consumption or the degree of annuity markets, is also highlighted. Empirical evidence of age-biased environmental care is provided.
OECD Statistics Working Papers, 2018
This document, as well as any data and map included herein, are without prejudice to the status o... more This document, as well as any data and map included herein, are without prejudice to the status of or sovereignty over any territory, to the delimitation of international frontiers and boundaries and to the name of any territory, city or area.