Welfare economic analysis of health issues and policies can provide well balanced orderings of the state of the economy. This paper provides an innovative framework for welfare economic analysis of the relationships between economic growth, health outcomes and social welfare for both a...

Die Studie untersucht, wie der Soziallastenansatz in Rheinland-Pfalz künftig ausgestaltet sein sollte. Es wird dargestellt, daß eine Orientierung an den tatsächlichen Mehrausgaben der Gebietskörperschaften nicht anreizkompatibel ist und daher nicht sinnvoll erscheint. Ein künftiger Ansatz...

Proposals for incorporating information on the quality of human, social, and environmental conditions in more authentic and comprehensive versions of the Gross National Product (GNP) or Gross Domestic Product (GDP) date back to the foundations of econometrics. Typically treated as external to...

This paper proposes foundations and a methodology for survey-based tracking of well-being. First, we develop a theory in which utility depends on “fundamental aspects” of well-being, measurable with surveys. Second, drawing from psychologists, philosophers, and economists, we compile a...

Human Development Index (HDI) is a composite index obtained by a weighted aggregation of other three indices, each measuring one aspect, namely life expectancy, education and real per capita income. Intra-country equality in income distribution, however, is very important with regard to quality...

From a composite poverty indicator, the analysis of the level and evolution of multidimensional poverty in Togo between 1988 and 1998 emphasized a downward trend with the both relative and absolute thresholds considered. Over the two studied periods, non-monetary poverty appears very strongly...

Expectations and information about the growth of GDP per capita have a large influence on decisions made by private and public economic agents. It will be argued here that GDP (per capita) is far from a robust indicator of social welfare, and that its use as such must be regarded as a serious...

Multidimensional indices are becoming increasingly important instruments to assess the well-being of societies. They move beyond the focus on a single indicator and yet, are easy to present and communicate. A crucial step in the construction of a multidimensional index of well-being is the...

Subjective measures of well-being - based on questions like "Taking things all together, how would you say things are these days: would you say you're very happy, pretty happy, or not too happy these days?" - are motivated in large part by widespread dissatisfaction with traditional economic...

The multidimensional view of well-being is receiving growing attention, both in academic research and policy-oriented analysis. This paper examines empirical strategies to measure poverty and inequality in multiple domains, concentrating on two problems in the use of synthetic multidimensional...