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A Review of the Literature on Well-Being in Italy: A Human Development Perspective

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  • Francesco Burchi
  • Chiara Gnesi

Abstract

In recent years, a large literature on indicators of well-being and quality of life has emerged. While all these indicators are an important step toward the recognition of well-being as a multidimensional phenomenon, they are often rooted in very different approaches—when we can identify a relevant “theoretical” framework—such as basic needs, happiness, or capability approach, and vary significantly in terms of statistical quality. This paper has a twofold objective: (1) to analyze the state of the art of the literature on well-being in Italy; (2) to examine this literature from a human development perspective. Thus, we investigate the pros and cons of the existing approaches/indicators and assess whether they are rooted in the human development approach. This is deemed necessary for the final goal of constructing a context-based indicator of human development for Italy and its territorial units.

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  • Francesco Burchi & Chiara Gnesi, 2016. "A Review of the Literature on Well-Being in Italy: A Human Development Perspective," Forum for Social Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 45(2-3), pages 170-192, August.
    • Handle: RePEc:taf:fosoec:v:45:y:2016:i:2-3:p:170-192
    DOI: 10.1080/07360932.2014.995197
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    1. Francesco Burchi & Nicole Rippin & Claudio E. Montenegro, 2018. "From income poverty to multidimensional poverty—an international comparison," One Pager Arabic 400, International Policy Centre for Inclusive Growth.
    2. Giorgio Calcagnini & Francesco Perugini, 2019. "A Well-Being Indicator for the Italian Provinces," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 142(1), pages 149-177, February.
    3. Domenico Tucci & Lorella Sicuro & Domenico Di Spalatro & Fabrizio Maturo, 2019. "Italians’ general satisfaction and perception of the country’s priority problems: A regional analysis of the phenomenon and its evolution from 2000 to 2015," Quality & Quantity: International Journal of Methodology, Springer, vol. 53(6), pages 2821-2842, November.
    4. Laura Bocci & Pierpaolo D’Urso & Vincenzina Vitale, 2021. "Clustering of the Italian Regions Based on Their Equitable and Sustainable Well-Being Indicators: A Three-Way Approach," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 155(3), pages 995-1043, June.
    5. Dalila Rosa, 2022. "Are Italians Getting Multidimensionally Poorer? Evidence on the Lack of Equitable and Sustainable Well-Being," Italian Economic Journal: A Continuation of Rivista Italiana degli Economisti and Giornale degli Economisti, Springer;Società Italiana degli Economisti (Italian Economic Association), vol. 8(1), pages 145-174, March.
    6. Weam Tunsi & Hisham Alidrisi, 2023. "The Innovation-Based Human Development Index Using PROMETHEE II: The Context of G8 Countries," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(14), pages 1-13, July.
    7. Francesco Burchi & Pasquale Muro & Eszter Kollar, 2018. "Constructing Well-Being and Poverty Dimensions on Political Grounds," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 137(2), pages 441-462, June.
    8. Silvia Facchinetti & Elena Siletti, 2022. "Well-being Indicators: a Review and Comparison in the Context of Italy," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 159(2), pages 523-547, January.
    9. Pierpaolo D’Urso & Vincenzina Vitale, 2021. "Modeling Local BES Indicators by Copula-Based Bayesian Networks," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 153(3), pages 823-847, February.
    10. Debraj Kalyan Roka, 2019. "GDP Growth and Income Paradoxical Relation to Happiness in China and South Asian countries," International Journal of Science and Business, IJSAB International, vol. 3(4), pages 61-85.
    11. Calcagnini, Giorgio & Perugini, Francesco, 2019. "Social capital and well-being in the Italian provinces," Socio-Economic Planning Sciences, Elsevier, vol. 68(C).

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    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • O15 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Development - - - Economic Development: Human Resources; Human Development; Income Distribution; Migration
    • I00 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - General - - - General
    • R58 - Urban, Rural, Regional, Real Estate, and Transportation Economics - - Regional Government Analysis - - - Regional Development Planning and Policy
    • D63 - Microeconomics - - Welfare Economics - - - Equity, Justice, Inequality, and Other Normative Criteria and Measurement
    • C43 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Econometric and Statistical Methods: Special Topics - - - Index Numbers and Aggregation

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