An Integrated Database to Measure Living Standards (original) (raw)
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Social Indicators Research
In recent years a large amount of works has been carried out with the aim to provide alternative meausures of progress and well-being to GDP. Given the multidimensional aspect of the phenomenon, most of these studies differs in terms of their theoretical approach as well as their purpose and statistical methodology used to define what wellbeing is and how to measure it. In this paper we construct a well-being indicator for the Italian (NUTS-3) provinces, following the approach used in Segre et al. (2001) for the construction of the regional (NUTS-2) QUARS indicator. The resulted well-being indicator shows a high degree of heterogeneity not only between provinces located in the North and the South part of Italy, but also among adjacent territories. An empirical model has been tested against possible well-being determinants. Our findings suggest that social capital, social security programs, income, and grant-making activities by Bank Foundations positively affect provincial well-being.
Well-being Indicators: a Review and Comparison in the Context of Italy
Social Indicators Research, 2021
Interest in the well-being measurement is constantly increasing worldwide, especially due to the Stiglitz Commission suggestions, which opened several questions about its assessment and theoretical framework. This paper focuses on the Italian scenario due to the central role given to this topic by the Italian Parliament, which introduces equitable and sustainable well-being among the objectives of the government’s economic and social policy. Significant differences exist among the proposed Italian well-being indices in terms of theoretical approach, statistical rigour and aims. We propose a detailed outline of these indices useful for policy-makers, practitioners, economists and statistics scholars, with the awareness that for a good analysis, a complete and conscious description of the data is the starting point to further improve their usefulness, to maximise their advantages and to cut down their limitations.
Italian Economic Journal
According to official statistics, the incidence of absolute poverty in Italy has sharply risen from 3.6 in 2005 to 7.7 percent in 2020, and this number is likely to rise in the post-pandemic period. However, standard poverty measures only consider the monetary aspect of poverty, neglecting the multidimensional nature of the phenomenon. The last decades have offered solid empirical evidence to guide political efforts to tackle both multidimensional wellbeing and poverty. In these times of rising inequalities, these efforts seem particularly valuable for identifying the most vulnerable groups. While Italy has made significant progress in defining multidimensional wellbeing, less attention has been given to multidimensional poverty. Hence, the goal of this paper is to offer a means for measuring multidimensional poverty (MPI) in Italy based on the Alkire-Foster method by using a widely recognized national framework for wellbeing (BES equitable and sustainable wellbeing) as the normative basis for the construction of the index. The contribution of the paper is twofold: (1) on the theoretical side, it seeks to increase the usability of national and international frameworks for wellbeing by proposing a national assessment scheme as a normative base for defining the dimensions of poverty; (2) on the empirical side, it provides evidence on the frequency and composition of multidimensional poverty in Italian regions. The results show that multidimensional poverty in Italy has increased over time, with the percentage of individuals considered as multidimensionally poor rising from 9.5 percent in 2005 to 17.5 percent in 2015. Moreover, a dimensional breakdown across regions and logistic regression shows that being older, female, from the South and married or widowed increases the probability of facing multidimensional poverty. Keywords MPI (multidimensional poverty index) • BES (equitable and sustainable wellbeing) • Capability approach • Alkire Foster method • Monetary poverty JEL Classification D63 • I32 • C10
Measuring Equitable and Sustainable Well-Being in Italy
Social Indicators Research Series, 2012
The official Italian well-being measuring system ("Equitable and Sustainable Well-being-BES") is probably the worldwide most advanced attempt to pursue the beyond GDP perspective effectively. In it, well-being is described in terms of 12 domains and a complex multi-indicator system of around 130 indicators, drawn mainly from Istat (official Italian statistical bureau) surveys and administrative archives. In order to get a more synthetic view of well-being, in the last four BES reports Istat employed aggregative procedures providing composite indicators for each well-being domain. The aggregative road to synthesis is however problematic, when complex and non-highly correlated indicator systems are to be summarized, mainly due to its compensative nature and interpretational difficulties. As a valuable alternative, in this paper we adopt a non-aggregative approach to synthesis, based on Partially Ordered Set Theory (Poset Theory) and show how it can be used to provide more "complexity-preserving"insights into well-being. In particular, we describe each well-being domain as a partially ordered set and compute synthetic indicators for wellbeing rankings at regional level for year 2017, getting more robust and interpretable results than with mainstream aggregative procedures.
The Evolution of the Italian Framework to Measure Well-Being
Journal of Official Statistics, 2021
Recently, a new approach for measuring well-being was developed by eighteen European countries in the wake of the “Beyond GDP movement” started in the 1990 and continued by the Stiglitz Commission. Among these European economies, eleven of them use measures of well-being for monitoring public policy. The Italian Statistical Institute (Istat) jointly with the National Council for Economics and Labor (CNEL) developed a multi-dimensional framework for measuring “equitable and sustainable well-being” (Bes) and since 2013 Istat publishes an annual report on well-being. The Bes framework is continuously updated to take into account new challenges: the exploitation of new data sources, to produce better indicators; new ways for making the communication more effective and foster public awareness; the inclusion of well-being indicators in the budget documents, as established by law. Especially for the latter, the Italian Bes can be considered a forerunner and, more generally, the Italian exp...
The Italian framework to measure well-being: towards the 2.0 version
2019
The work of the Stiglitz’s Commission (2009) has renewed the attention on wellbeing as a multidimensional phenomenon and on beyond-GDP measures, fostering the gradual inclusion of well-being indicators in the policy agenda. This debate calls for a new phase in the measurement of well-being. The exploitation of new data sources, hence new and more punctual indicators; a new metric apt to take into account interactions between the well-being dimensions; an explicit inclusion of well-being indicators in the policy cycle are part of a process leading to the 2.0 version of well-being. The Italian experience on the measure of equitable and sustainable well-being (Bes) is a good example to illustrate this evolution. The current Bes framework are fully analyzed together with three emerging issues: the use of administrative data; the definition of composite indices as a useful synthesis for well-being; the implementation of well-being indicators in the policy cycle. JEL classification codes:...
Multidimensional economic well-being. Is it measurable? The case of Lombardy
The definition and measurement of economic well-being is receiving growing attention, both in academic research and policy agenda, as a key issue to provide a solid basis for decision-making at all levels, both national and local. There is general agreement among economists and policy-makers about the necessity to go beyond GDP but the convergence towards a new and wider definition and measurement is far from being reached. This is why research and experiments that try to test different definitions and indicators can help, through empirical results, to the ongoing debate. This paper attempts to measure the multidimensional well-being of the Italian Region Lombardy, for the years 1995-2005, along the lines of the Index of Economic Well-Being (IEWB) proposed by the Centre for the Study of Living Standards (Osberg, 1985; Osberg and Sharpe, 2002, 2005). The evolution of the index is aligned with that of per capita GDP from 1995 to 2001 but diverges in the following period because of the...
Economic and sociological determinants of well-being in Italy: A regional perspective
Journal of Governance and Regulation
This paper aims to analyze the determinants of well-being by considering economic and sociological perspectives. These perspectives emphasize the relationship between well-being and “consumption of time”, a concept that relates to the “hyper identity” status. Data are collected starting from a dataset realized by ISTAT (Italian National Institute of Statistics) for the period 2005-2016 and considering a sample of 130 indicators (12 relevant domains) collected by Italian regions, updated annually in the so-called BES (Benessere equo e sostenibile) 2017 report. Taking into account the socio-economic literature collected on the topic, we have structured five econometric models using a stepwise regression methodology. All models have been structured taking into account life satisfaction as the dependent variable and other explanatory variables. The study contributes to the existing literature on the theme of individual well-being and its main determinants, also highlighting possible pra...
A multidimensional poverty analysis. Evidence from Italian data.’ Preliminary draft
2007
Conventional poverty measures, showing that poverty and inequality have increased in Italy over the past fifteen years, are based on household income. The main drawback of this method is that it does not include other non-monetary variables relevant for defining households ’ necessities. It is now widely agreed that poverty should be conceptualised as a multidimensional phenomenon, more related to the standard of living of the person or household than to the simple inability of satisfying basic subsistence needs. In this paper we propose to measure poverty in Italy by complementing income information with non-monetary indicators. To this end a multidimensional poverty analysis is performed by using a representative sample based on the first wave (2004) of the Italian component of the European Statistics on Income and Living Conditions (EU-SILC). Starting from the concept of deprivation, a non linear principal component analysis is applied to selected items in order to reveal underly...