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EU Country Rankings’ Sensitivity to the Choice of Welfare Indicators

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  • M. Hussain

Abstract

Ranking of countries with respect to some welfare measure is highly popular and takes places with high frequency. Ranking of a country can change over time given the same welfare measure is applied. Rankings can also change depending on which welfare measure is applied in a given year. To what extent do we see ranking changes and which existing welfare measures best captures an unobserved, yet existing, notion of welfare in society? To investigate this we apply seven welfare indicators for fifteen EU countries covering the years from 2005 until 2011. The results indicate that rankings are particularly volatile for countries in the middle of the ranking distribution, while countries with either high or low welfare generally have lower volatility. A multidimensional poverty index has the highest correlation with the latent welfare measure. It is concluded that the observed rankings do not tell a coherent story, but often point in very different directions, although welfare indicators are often highly correlated. The change in indicator ranks is much less correlated. Copyright Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht 2016

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  • M. Hussain, 2016. "EU Country Rankings’ Sensitivity to the Choice of Welfare Indicators," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 125(1), pages 1-17, January.
    • Handle: RePEc:spr:soinre:v:125:y:2016:i:1:p:1-17
    DOI: 10.1007/s11205-014-0830-4
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    1. M. Azhar Hussain & Nikolaj Siersbæk & Lars Peter Østerdal, 2020. "Multidimensional welfare comparisons of EU member states before, during, and after the financial crisis: a dominance approach," Social Choice and Welfare, Springer;The Society for Social Choice and Welfare, vol. 55(4), pages 645-686, December.
    2. Channing Arndt & Azhar M. Hussain & Vincenzo Salvucci & Finn Tarp & Lars Peter Østerdal, 2016. "Poverty Mapping Based on First‐Order Dominance with an Example from Mozambique," Journal of International Development, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 28(1), pages 3-21, January.
    3. Channing Arndt & Azhar M. Hussain & Vincenzo Salvucci & Finn Tarp & Lars Peter Østerdal, 2016. "Poverty Mapping Based on First‐Order Dominance with an Example from Mozambique," Journal of International Development, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 28(1), pages 3-21, January.

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