Using capabilities as an alternative indicator for well-being

Direct measurement of capabilities is scarce, mainly because questions arise concerning their observability. This paper lines up with the kind of ‘primary data’ base research as it is pioneered in Anand & Van Hees (2006) and Anand et al (2009) and shows the potential of information on subjective capabilities as indicator and aggregator for well-being. We develop a questionnaire which consistently makes the distinction between functionings and capabilities on the one hand, and between the measurement and valuation of these functionings and capabilities on the other hand. We survey a population of 18 year old first year Bachelor students in applied economics and business studies. We show that capabilities can be subjectively measured. The data confirm the theoretical hypothesis that the set of capabilities is larger than the achieved functionings. Information on capabilities can be a suitable “object of valuation” for wellbeing research. To some extent, the explanatory variables behind the capabilities interpretation of well-being (eg. the role of the parents especially when they are divorced) are more relevant for policy compared to the variables influencing satisfaction with life (eg. not being single), because they are more beyond the control of the individual.

Comparing the Anamnestic Comparative Self-Assessment (ACSA) to a Conventional Happiness Question Without Anchoring

© 2018, Springer Science+Business Media B.V., part of Springer Nature and The International Society for Quality-of-Life Studies (ISQOLS). The Anamnestic Comparative Self-Assessment (ACSA) uses a self-anchoring rating scale to measure subjective well-being. Because of its internal frame of reference, ACSA is argued to be less influenced by cultural relativities and psychological traits. We collect survey data in Flanders that contain both a conventional happiness question (CQ) and ACSA. It is the first time that ACSA data are collected in a developed country outside of a clinical setting. In line with previous research, we find that the mean score for ACSA is significantly lower than the mean CQ score and that both scores are positively correlated. Social life (family, relationships, and friends) is cited most when self-anchoring the best period in life, whereas health issues and personal events are most often linked to the worst period in life. These findings add to the idea that the anchors of the ACSA scale are universal. In a simple model, we find that ACSA is determined by two variables that can change over time: being employed and being in a relation. In an extended model, however, ACSA’s insensitivity to socio-demographic variables that are not amenable to change no longer holds and personality traits become important.status: publishe

What is Important for Well-Being?

© 2018, Springer Nature B.V. This paper examines the importance of five dimensions (health, income, education, family life, and social life) to the well-being of the Flemish society. The importance of these dimensions is determined by the opinions of the sampled individuals. Using point allocation and direct rating to derive these opinions, we aim to determine which dimensions are considered most important to well-being and the individual heterogeneities that drive this importance. We also aim to study the relationship between the outcome on a dimension (i.e. the self-reported existing situation) and its importance. Summary statistics show that, on average, health and family life are the two most crucial aspects of well-being. Results of linear regressions reveal that older individuals regard health, education, and social life to be crucial. Individuals who have a high trust in people and/or are highly educated regard income as a less crucial dimension. Our results also show that contrary to social life, family life matters more to respondents who have kids and/or a partner. Education, social and family life outcomes demonstrate a weak, positive correlation with their respective importance. Our findings imply that enhancing health, supporting family life, and promoting a vibrant social life for the elderly help increase well-being in Flanders.status: Published onlin

WHAT IF WE VOTED ON THE WEIGHTS OF A MULTIDIMENSIONAL WELL-BEING INDEX? AN ILLUSTRATION WITH FLEMISH DATA

There is a widespread consensus that well-being is a multidimensional notion. To quantify multidimensional well-being, information on the relative weights of the different dimensions is essential. There is, however, considerable disagreement in the literature on the most appropriate weighting scheme to be used. Making use of a recent data set for Flanders, we compare various methods to select a weighting scheme. The results are indeed different such that, for instance, a policymaker would identify different groups of individuals as being worst-off depending on the scheme that is chosen. In order to compare and evaluate the weighting schemes, we simulate the support each scheme would get in a hypothetical voting procedure. Weighting schemes that obtain a higher support reflect better the priorities of the respondents themselves and suffer less from the problem of paternalism. Quite remarkably, the popular equal weighting scheme is found to be the least supported in our data set.Multidimensional well-being, weighting schemes, equal weights, voting.

A distance function approach to school-leavers’ efficiency in the school-to-work transition

Two conventional approaches to study the school-to-work transition are the duration period to the first job and the satisfaction in (or for some specific characteristics of) the first job. This paper compares these two approaches with an analysis of the efficiency of school-leavers? first job achievement. The transformation of resources, when leaving school, into achieved first job characteristics is analysed using a multi-input multi-output stochastic distance function approach. This allows to assess the efficiency of this conversion process. Inter-individual differences in transformation efficiency are important, especially when policy makers want to focus on reasons for resource-inefficiency that are beyond the control of the individual. The empirical analysis is based on the 1978 birth cohort of the Flemish SONAR data. The variation in efficiency is explained in terms of individual-specific conversion factors that influence job efficiency: the social (family) background, the motivation to work, the number of search channels used and the sector of employment. The most important positive factor is education (a higher number of successful school years). The results are compared with the average duration to the first job and average job satisfaction. The efficiency analysis provides additional information. Most attention is attracted to the role of the social background, more specifically having a non-Belgian background, for the school-to-work transition.

Does Well-Being Vary with an Individual-Specific Weighting Scheme?

© 2019, The International Society for Quality-of-Life Studies (ISQOLS) and Springer Nature B.V. In terms of a composite well-being indicator, literature remains inconclusive regarding the appropriate weighting scheme to apply. Although condemned as arbitrary, equal weights remain popular and are applied in several global indicators. This paper examines whether the well-being level is sensitive to the underlying weighting scheme by comparing equal weights to non-paternalistic weights. Using a representative sample of 1431 Dutch speaking Belgians, we present a well-being index based on five dimensions: health, income, education, family life, and social life. The non-paternalistic weighting scheme is derived by asking respondents to think about the importance of the five dimensions to their well-being, and based on this importance allocate 100 points over the dimensions. We find that the underlying weighting scheme affects the well-being level of individuals who report low outcomes on some dimensions and high on others. We also find that the two schemes deem different groups of individuals to be in the bottom decile, affecting the beneficiaries of a policy targeting the worst-off. Since the well-being of respondents performing poorly on all five dimensions will be low regardless of the applied weights, we recommend the use of non-paternalistic weights to evaluate the well-being of respondents with a varying outcome across dimensions. This recommendation is based on the notion that well-being is intrinsically personal, and therefore is best evaluated by the individuals themselves.status: publishe

Measuring job quality and job satisfaction

Job quality is a multi-dimensional concept that has become prominent on the agenda of policy-makers. There is no consensus about how to measure and how to monitor it. In this paper we compare often used objective and subjective indicators of job quality. We argue that objective indicators are .too objective, as they neglect interindividual differences in preferences, while subjective job satisfaction is .too subjective, as it also reflects differences in aspirations. We propose an alternative measure of job quality in terms of equivalent incomes that does respect individual preferences but rules out aspirations. We illustrate our approach with Flemish data on school-leavers (SONAR) using the information on the .rst job of the 1978 birth cohort. We compare the results for the equivalent income indicator with the results of objective and subjective indicators.job quality, job satisfaction