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Human Well-being and Economic Well-being: What Values Are Implicit in Current Indices?

Author

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  • Lars Osberg
  • Andrew Sharpe

Abstract

This paper develops an Index of Economic Well-being (IEWB) for the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, Germany, Norway and Sweden for the period 1980 to 2001 which recognizes four components: Current effective per capita consumption flows; Net societal accumulation of stocks of productive resources; Income distribution; Economic security. Since the Human Development Index uses GDP per capita to measure “command over resources”, which implicitly makes the strong value judgment that inequality and insecurity do not matter, the paper demonstrates that a better measure of “command over resources” has a significant effect on the trend and level of the HDI – particularly for the United States, which slips to last place among the countries examined.

Suggested Citation

  • Lars Osberg & Andrew Sharpe, 2003. "Human Well-being and Economic Well-being: What Values Are Implicit in Current Indices?," CSLS Research Reports 2003-04, Centre for the Study of Living Standards.
    • Handle: RePEc:sls:resrep:0304
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    10. Lars Osberg, 2003. "Understanding Growth and Inequality Trends: The Role of Labour Supply in the US and Germany," Canadian Public Policy, University of Toronto Press, vol. 29(s1), pages 163-184, January.
    11. Lars Osberg & Andrew Sharpe, 2002. "International Comparisons of Trends in Economic Well-being," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 58(1), pages 349-382, June.
    12. Michael Hagerty & Robert Cummins & Abbott Ferriss & Kenneth Land & Alex Michalos & Mark Peterson & Andrew Sharpe & Joseph Sirgy & Joachim Vogel, 2001. "Quality of Life Indexes for National Policy: Review and Agenda for Research," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 55(1), pages 1-96, July.
    13. A. B. Atkinson, 2003. "Income Inequality in OECD Countries: Data and Explanations," CESifo Economic Studies, CESifo Group, vol. 49(4), pages 479-513.
    14. Lars Osberg, 2003. "Long Run Trends in Income Inequality in the United States, UK, Sweden, Germany and Canada: A Birth Cohort View," Eastern Economic Journal, Eastern Economic Association, vol. 29(1), pages 121-141, Winter.
    15. Shelley Phipps & Thesia I. Garner, 1994. "Are Equivalence Scales The Same For The United States And Canada?," Review of Income and Wealth, International Association for Research in Income and Wealth, vol. 40(1), pages 1-17, March.
    16. Lars Osberg & Kuan Xu, 2000. "International Comparisons of Poverty Intensity: Index Decomposition and Bootstrap Inference," Journal of Human Resources, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 35(1), pages 51-81.
    17. Lars Osberg & Andrew Sharpe, 2002. "An Index of Economic Well–Being for Selected OECD Countries," Review of Income and Wealth, International Association for Research in Income and Wealth, vol. 48(3), pages 291-316, September.
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    Cited by:

    1. Ravi Prakash & Pulkit Garg, 2019. "Comparative assessment of HDI with Composite Development Index (CDI)," Post-Print hal-02115225, HAL.
    2. Géraldine Thiry, 2015. "Beyond GDP: Conceptual Grounds of Quantification. The Case of the Index of Economic Well-Being (IEWB)," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 121(2), pages 313-343, April.
    3. Pattaraphongpan Chaiyamart & William Gartner, 2021. "Marginal rate of substitution of multidimensional well-being for affected residents of the dam, Pak Mun Dam," International Journal of Research in Business and Social Science (2147-4478), Center for the Strategic Studies in Business and Finance, vol. 10(3), pages 438-448, April.
    4. Po-Chin Wu & Chiung-Wen Fan & Sheng-Chieh Pan, 2014. "Does Human Development Index Provide Rational Development Rankings? Evidence from Efficiency Rankings in Super Efficiency Model," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 116(2), pages 647-658, April.
    5. Andrew Sharpe, 2004. "Literature Review of Frameworks for Macro-indicators," CSLS Research Reports 2004-03, Centre for the Study of Living Standards.
    6. Antonio Jurado & Jesus Perez-Mayo, 2012. "Construction and Evolution of a Multidimensional Well-Being Index for the Spanish Regions," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 107(2), pages 259-279, June.
    7. Pattaraphongpan Chaiyamart & William Gartner & Kristen Nelson, 2021. "Well-being capital and government’s intervention to dam’s affected residents: Pak Mun Dam, Thailand," International Journal of Research in Business and Social Science (2147-4478), Center for the Strategic Studies in Business and Finance, vol. 10(4), pages 288-301, June.
    8. Yacouba Gnegne, 2024. "Assessing Sustainable Development: Toward a Portfolio of Indices?," Journal of Sustainable Development, Canadian Center of Science and Education, vol. 12(4), pages 225-225, July.
    9. repec:ssi:jouesi:v:1:y:2019:i:1:p:58-76 is not listed on IDEAS
    10. Pilar Murias & Fidel Martinez & Carlos Miguel, 2006. "An Economic Wellbeing Index for the Spanish Provinces: A Data Envelopment Analysis Approach," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 77(3), pages 395-417, July.
    11. Pattaraphongpan Chaiyamart & William Gartner & Robert delMas, 2021. "Multidimensional well-being of residents affected by the Pak Mun Dam, Thailand," International Journal of Research in Business and Social Science (2147-4478), Center for the Strategic Studies in Business and Finance, vol. 10(2), pages 261-269, March.
    12. Andrew Sharpe & Jeremy Smith, 2005. "Measuring the Impact of Research on Well-being: A Survey of Indicators of Well-being," CSLS Research Reports 2005-02, Centre for the Study of Living Standards.
    13. Ayasrah, Tha'r, 2012. "The Social Economic Development Index: A New Measurement of Development," Jurnal Ekonomi Malaysia, Faculty of Economics and Business, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, vol. 46(2), pages 37-53.
    14. Ravi Prakash & Pulkit Garg, 2019. "Comparative assessment of HDI with Composite Development Index (CDI)," Insights into Regional Development, VsI Entrepreneurship and Sustainability Center, vol. 1(1), pages 58-76, March.
    15. Lars Osberg & Andrew Sharpe, 2003. "An Index of Labour Market Well-Being for OECD Countries," CSLS Research Reports 2003-05, Centre for the Study of Living Standards.

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