IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/aea/aecrev/v107y2017i5p81-85.html

Challenges in Constructing a Survey-Based Well-Being Index

Author

Listed:
  • Daniel J. Benjamin
  • Kristen B. Cooper
  • Ori Heffetz
  • Miles Kimball

Abstract

How should a survey-based measure of well-being be implemented? How could it be constructed in a systematic and politically neutral way? These questions should be approached by economists with the same level of care that has been taken in the theoretical and practical development of GDP. We focus on two essential requirements for implementation: formulating a list of different aspects of well-being that is theoretically valid and can be measured accurately via surveys, and choosing and interpreting the survey response scales. We discuss progress to date on these issues, remaining challenges, and some possible approaches to overcoming them.

Suggested Citation

  • Daniel J. Benjamin & Kristen B. Cooper & Ori Heffetz & Miles Kimball, 2017. "Challenges in Constructing a Survey-Based Well-Being Index," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 107(5), pages 81-85, May.
    • Handle: RePEc:aea:aecrev:v:107:y:2017:i:5:p:81-85
    Note: DOI: 10.1257/aer.p20171099
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.aeaweb.org/articles?id=10.1257/aer.p20171099
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.aeaweb.org/articles/attachments?retrieve=KYfEDnSyDU7NOSYbFn0-khvJCfjdiCjV
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to AEA members and institutional subscribers.
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Adam Okulicz-Kozaryn & Rubia R. Valente, 2019. "Livability and Subjective Well-Being Across European Cities," Applied Research in Quality of Life, Springer;International Society for Quality-of-Life Studies, vol. 14(1), pages 197-220, March.
    2. Rosalia Castellano & Gabriella Bernardo & Gennaro Punzo, 2023. "Well-being in OECD countries: an assessment of technical and social efficiency using data envelopment analysis," International Review of Economics, Springer;Happiness Economics and Interpersonal Relations (HEIRS), vol. 70(2), pages 141-176, June.
    3. Clemens Hetschko & Louisa von Reumont & Ronnie Schöb, 2019. "Embedding as a pitfall for survey‐based welfare indicators: evidence from an experiment," Journal of the Royal Statistical Society Series A, Royal Statistical Society, vol. 182(2), pages 517-539, February.
    4. Daniel J. Benjamin & Kristen Cooper & Ori Heffetz & Miles Kimball, 2024. "From Happiness Data to Economic Conclusions," Annual Review of Economics, Annual Reviews, vol. 16(1), pages 359-391, August.
    5. Daniel J. Benjamin & Kristen Cooper & Ori Heffetz & Miles S. Kimball & Jiannan Zhou, 2023. "Adjusting for Scale-Use Heterogeneity in Self-Reported Well-Being," NBER Working Papers 31728, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    6. Sonia Akter & Talitha Fauzia & Madhavi Pundit & Marcel Schroder, 2022. "A Gender-Specific Earthquake Recovery Assessment Using Administrative and Satellite Data: The Case of Indonesia’s 2016 Aceh Earthquake," ADB Economics Working Paper Series 674, Asian Development Bank.
    7. David Steinmayr & Doris Weichselbaumer & Rudolf Winter-Ebmer, 2020. "Gender Differences in Active Ageing: Findings from a New Individual-Level Index for European Countries," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 151(2), pages 691-721, September.
    8. DA COSTA Shaun Mark, 2025. "Composite indices and preference-based measures of wellbeing," JRC Research Reports JRC141107, Joint Research Centre.
    9. Adi Arad & Steven Laufer & Zohar Or Sharvit & Yaniv Reingewertz & Michael Hartal, 2024. "Preference heterogeneity over the aspects of individual well-being: towards the construction of an applied well-being index," Social Choice and Welfare, Springer;The Society for Social Choice and Welfare, vol. 63(2), pages 437-468, September.
    10. Decerf,Benoit Marie A, 2024. "Multidimensional Well-Being Measurement Practices : A Review Focused on Improving Global Multidimensional Poverty Indicators," Policy Research Working Paper Series 10800, The World Bank.
    11. Ge, Shuang & Liu, Xielin, 2022. "The role of knowledge creation, absorption and acquisition in determining national competitive advantage," Technovation, Elsevier, vol. 112(C).
    12. Oscar Zapata, 2024. "Unequally Happy: Happiness Inequality Across Satisfaction Domains in a Developing-Country Context," Applied Research in Quality of Life, Springer;International Society for Quality-of-Life Studies, vol. 19(6), pages 3129-3151, December.

    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • C43 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Econometric and Statistical Methods: Special Topics - - - Index Numbers and Aggregation
    • C83 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Data Collection and Data Estimation Methodology; Computer Programs - - - Survey Methods; Sampling Methods
    • I31 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Welfare, Well-Being, and Poverty - - - General Welfare, Well-Being

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:aea:aecrev:v:107:y:2017:i:5:p:81-85. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Michael P. Albert (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/aeaaaea.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.