Quality of Life in the Economic and Urban Economic Literature

Quality of life (QoL) is increasingly becoming a concept researched empirically and theoretically in the field of economics. In urban economics in particular, this increasing interest stems mainly from the fact that QoL affects urban competitiveness and urban growth: research shows that when households and businesses decide where to locate, QoL considerations can play a very important role. The purpose of the present paper is to examine the way economic literature and urban economic literature in particular, have adopted QoL considerations in the economic thinking. Moreover, it presents the ways various studies have attempted to capture the multidimensional nature of the concept, and quantify it for the purposes of empirical research. Conclusions are drawn on the state of affairs regarding the study of QoL in economics, as well as the problems of measurement arising mainly from the complex nature of the concept.      

What Defines Quality of Life? The Gap Between Public Policies and Locally Defined Indicators Among Residents of Kodagu, Karnataka (India)

Improving quality of life (QoL) is one of the main goals of many public policies. A useful tool to measure QoL needs to get a good balance between indicators guided by theories (top-down approach) and indicators defined by local people (bottom-up approach). However, QoL measurement tools often neglect to include elements that define the standard of living at local level. In this paper, we analyse the correspondence between human development index, as an indicator adopted by governments to assess QoL, and the elements defined by local people as important in their QoL, called here local means. Using a free-listing technique, we collected information from 114 individuals from Kodagu, Kartanataka (India), to capture local means defining QoL. We then compared local means with the indicators used by Human development report (HDR) of Karnataka, the main measurement tool of QoL in Kodagu. The list of local means included access to basic facilities and many issues related to agriculture and natural resources management as elements locally defining QoL. We also found that HDR does not capture the means defined by people as indicators of QoL. Our findings suggest an important gap between current QoL’s indicators considered by public policies and the means of QoL defined by people. Our study provides insights for a set of plausible local indicators useful to achieve a balance between top-down and bottom-up approaches for the local public policies.     

The Assessment of Quality of Life in Transitional Neighborhoods

Quality of life (QoL) is being considered as one of the fundamental concepts in contemporary era. It tries to assess the level of general welfare of the communities. Urban transitional neighborhoods possess specific situation and as a result present distinctive QoL. The major objective of this study is to identify and measure the QoL dimensions in urban transitional neighborhoods using both objective and subjective indices pertaining to Darvazeshemiran neighborhood of Tehran. In order to accomplish this and gather needed data, 244 questionnaires were distributed among Darvazeshemiran’s residents. This study suggests that there exists low level of QoL in the study area. That is 64.3 % of the residents were dissatisfied with the prevailing level of QoL. This in turn is associated with the transitional nature of this neighborhood. The residents were strongly dissatisfied with regard to the environmental qualification as opposed to accessibility status. Furthermore, this study identified five objective factors respectively regarding QoL. There exists low correlation between subjective and objective dimensions. That demands simultaneous consideration of both objective and subjective dimensions. It is argued that individual treatments of each could not accurately represent the QoL of residents.     

Examining the Influence of the Wine Festival Experience on Tourists’ Quality of Life

Hosting events and festivals is the best way of providing the wine tourism experience. Wine festivals offer a wide range of experiences that are different from day-to-day living, offer a lifestyle package and are an indicator of lifestyle tourism experience. Tourists travel to wine festivals for wine and other leisure-related experiences, including opportunities for social and/or cultural experiences, interactivity and personal development. Therefore, wine festivals should provide an experience that can influence the quality of life (QoL) of the attending tourist. QoL is influenced by various life domains, which include social, leisure and recreational, intellectual, culinary, and travel life. By its nature, a wine festival is able to influence life domains, thereby decreasing or increasing the level of satisfaction with QoL, according to the level of satisfactory experience. The purpose of this article is to examine the influence of the wine festival experience on the QoL of attending tourists. The structural relationship between the wine festival experience on tourists’ QoL is shown in a structural equation model (SEM), which is based on the notion that the QoL of attending tourists will be influenced by their level of satisfaction in various life domains. A self-administrated questionnaire was distributed during the Wacky Wine Festival in Robertson South Africa. The data from 329 (N) eligible questionnaires was cleaned, captured and analysed using SPSS. Furthermore, Amos was used to test the structural model providing statistical support. From the study’s findings, managerial recommendations were made with the aim of maximising attending wine tourists’ QoL. The research contributes to the literature related to QoL.     

Gender or Occupational Status: What Counts More for Well-Being at Work?

The aim of this study is to provide cross-cultural empirical support that endorses the scientific nature of Quality of Life (QoL), which a review of definitions reveals as a nomothetic and multidimensional concept (personal and environmental circumstances), made up of a set of subjective and objective indicators. Although this is commonly accepted, many instruments and authors reduce it to subjective and personal conditions. Bearing in mind the aim described, multi-group Structural Equation Modelling analysis was applied to two representative samples made up of 1217 participants aged over 60 from Mexico and Spain, recruited both at random (through the random route procedure), who completed the CUBRECAVI (Brief Questionnaire of Quality of Life). In this model two third-order latent variables are considered for QoL: personal and external factors, both made up of objective and subjective indicators. As predicted, the results permit us to state that the structural model is invariant across the two countries—that is, although the QoL construct has the same structure in the two countries, the importance of the indicators (factor loadings) and the relationships between them are not equivalent.     

Variability of Quality of Life at Small Scales: Addis Ababa,Kirkos Sub-City

Urban quality of life (QoL) is becoming a subject of urban research mainly for western and Asian countries. Such attention is due to an increasing awareness of the contribution of QoL studies in identifying intervention areas and in monitoring urban planning policies. However, most studies are carried out at city or country level that can average out details at small scales. In this paper we present a case study where the urban QoL at small scale is measured and its variability is evaluated for Kirkos sub-city of Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. The study is based on data from a household survey and some secondary data. Geographic information system (GIS) is applied to extract proximity information (e.g., distance to school facilities) and visualize the spatial distribution of QoL. Statistical methods such as factor analysis are applied to establish an index of objective QoL while coefficient of variation is applied to evaluate spatial variability of subjective QoL. The results of this study reveal that the subjective quality of life (QoL) scores show large variation in the sub-city. The mean QoL score also indicates that the respondents in the sub-city, on average, are dissatisfied with the quality of their life. Respondents with higher education level and income are on average, however, more satisfied with their QoL in the sub-city. The results reveal that the lower the QoL in the Kebele, the larger the variability of QoL within the Kebele. Such indicates how aggregation at large scale can average out the variation of QoL at small scales. The results reveal the presence of QoL variability at small scales. The comparison between the subjective and the objective QoL at Kebele level indicated a state of dissonance, adaptation, deprivation or well-being. Such results suggest that the two measures do not always indicate the same level of QoL.     

Importance is Not Unimportant: The Role of Importance Weighting in QOL Measures

The effect of relative domain importance as a weighting mechanism in quality of life (QoL) measures has been a topic of debate for decades. Studies investigating the role of domain importance in QoL measures have produced mixed results. The mixed results may very well be the consequences of a limited choice of global satisfaction or QoL measures, measurements of domain satisfaction, measurements of domain importance and weighting approaches applied to date. This study investigated the effect of importance weighting without assigning any arbitrary weighting function of domain importance. A cluster analysis was first used to classify individuals into groups, based on their perceived importance of various life domains, and then the relationship between global life satisfaction measure and the composite of domain satisfaction scores between these groups was compared. Results of this study showed that the relationship between global life satisfaction and composite of satisfaction scores did not remain consistent for respondents with different importance rankings of major life domains, which suggested an important effect of domain importance in QoL measures.     

Employment and Earnings Expectations of Jobless Young Skilled: Evidence from Italy

Quality of Life (QoL) is a multi-dimensional idea that includes various distinctive dimensions and its estimation is considered as an essential factor for policy assessment. The study estimates the inter-district variation in QoL in Pakistan by using a data set of Household Integrated Economic Survey of 2010–2011. Objective and subjective indices are constructed to measure QoL with 7 domains and 31 indicators within 89 districts of Pakistan by employing the principal component analysis. The leading result of the study reveals that top ranked district is Jhelum in term of QoL and Tharparkar is at the bottom. The analysis also reveals that the most of the top ranked districts are located in Punjab province. This reflects the better performance of the province in term objective and QoL indices. Whereas, the districts of Balochistan emerge at the lower end in terms of objective and QoL indices. Majority districts of Punjab shows a modest level of satisfaction regarding the facilities provided by the government and the least satisfied districts belong to KPK and Sindh. It is interesting to identify that disparity in the objective index and subjective perceptions are representing QoL differences.

     

The Quality of Life Among U.S. States

Categories of Schwartz and Mukherjee are used to select twelve measures with direct or indirect influence on QoL of the 50 States and the D.C. Included are such recognized indicators as health, housing, longevity, a toxic-free environment, crime, etc. From a factor analysis of these data, four factors emerge, identified as Security, Mastery, Harmony and Autonomy. Three partially-independent measures provide verification of the QoL measures: the KIDS COUNT Index, the Southern Regional Council QoL of workers Index and a state-by-state Stress Index. I then test hypotheses relating to QoL: the economic hypothesis that the production of wealth enhances welfare (QoL), a demographic hypotheses concerning migration and urbanization, an hypothesis that religious adherents influence QoL, and psychological hypothesis that a better QoL generates less stress, and others.     

Empowering Members,Not Overpowering Them: The National Organization for Women,Calls for Lesbian Inclusion,and California Influence, 1960s–1980s

Standard accounts of the National Organization for Women (NOW) seriously underplay the duration of tensions between heterosexual and lesbian NOW members and the ways those tensions included both racialized analogies and tactical concerns. Based on personal papers, archival sources, interviews, and a re-evaluation of printed sources, I argue that by considering the perspective of national, state, and local lesbian feminist NOW members, we see tensions from the 1960s through the 1980s that have been missed by studies that focus either on NOW or on the growth of lesbian feminism or on second-wave feminist development generally. To legitimize their position, White lesbian feminists analogized their oppression with that of racial minorities while claiming to be better feminists than heterosexual women. Their approach is significant to conceptualizing the scope of feminist issues and tactics, the ways White women's discussion of race exacerbated racial divisions, and the fate of the Equal Rights Amendment.     

A Gender Lens on Quality of Life: The Role of Sense of Community,Perceived Social Support,Self-Reported Health and Income

Quality of life (QoL) refers to a subjective evaluation that is embedded in a cultural, social and environmental context. It is a multidimensional concept and its assessment covers four domains: physical health, psychological health, social relationships, and environment. Although many studies report on QoL, literature rarely addressed the question of the QoL predictors from a gender perspective. Present study aimed at investigating gender differences in the determinants of QoL. Specifically, gender was considered as a moderator in the relationship between predictors of QoL (i.e. socio-demographic characteristics, perceived health, income, social support and sense of community) and each dimension of QoL. 654 Italian adults participated in the study. Results show that men outscore women on the physical, the psychological and the environmental domains of QoL. Considering determinants of QoL, sense of community and self-reported health operate in a similar fashion for both genders. On the contrary, social support is more predictive for women’s QoL, whereas the income level is more significant for men’s QoL. Implications are discussed.     

The Perceived Role of ICTs in Quality of Life in Three Chinese Cities

This study assesses the perceived role of information and communication technologies (ICTs) including the Internet, mobile telephone, CD/MD/MP3, television and VCR/VCD/DVD in raising quality of life (QoL). A comparison is made between three Chinese cities, namely, Beijing, Taipei and Hong Kong, to see if differences exist in the perceived value of various forms of ICTs in the three cities, which share Chinese culture but different levels of development. Household interviews with probability samples were conducted in the three cities in 2002–2003. The findings show that the Internet and mobile phone are considered as the most and second most important medium respectively in raising quality of life in all three cities, while television ranks third and other ICTs trail behind. Based on the findings, the authors advance four propositions for the perceived role of ICTs in QoL. First, there are four basic needs related to ICT’s role in QoL. These “ICT-QoL” needs are the need for interaction, need for being in touch, need for instantaneous communication, and need for entertainment. Second, people’s assessment of an ICT’s value in raising their QoL varies with the penetration rate of that ICT—the higher the penetration, the more positive is the assessment of that ICT’s role in QoL. Third, the perceived value of an ICT in QoL declines with time—the longer the ICT has been around after reaching full penetration rate, the lower the value is attached to its contribution to QoL. Finally, education has strong influences on the assessment of the Internet’s role in QoL. Highly educated people tend to value the Internet most as a QoL raiser irrespective of the city they reside in. As a QoL raiser, the Internet is favored more by highly educated while mobile and fixed phone are favored more by lowly educated people.     

Individual quality of life: can it be accounted for by psychological or subjective well-being?

There is ongoing discussion in the scientific literature about the need for a more theoretical foundation to underpin quality of life (QoL) measurement. This paper applied Keyes et al.’s [J. Pers. Soc. Psychol. 82 (2002) 1007] model of well-being as a framework to assess whether respondents (n = 136 students) focus on elements of subjective well-being (SWB), such as satisfaction and happiness, or on elements of psychological well-being (PWB), such as meaning and personal growth, when making individual QoL (IQoL) judgments using the Schedue of the Evaluation of Individual Quality of Life (SEIQoL). The Keyes et al.’s model was confirmed and explained 41% of the variance in SEIQoL scores. Both SWB and PWB were correlated with the SEIQoL Index Score and SWB was found to be an important mediating variable in the relationship between PWB and SEIQoL. When analyzing different well-being combinations, respondents with high SWB/high PWB had significantly higher SEIQoL scores than did those with low SWB/low PWB. Respondents with high PWB/high SWB had higher SEIQoL scores than did those with high PWB/low SWB. Longitudinal studies in different patient groups are needed to explore the dynamic relationship between IQoL and well-being. Further investigation of the relationship between PWB and SWB with other instruments purporting to measure QoL would contribute to an enhanced understanding of the underlying nature of QoL.     

Determinanten der Lebensqualität psychisch kranker Personen

Not only chronic mental disease, but also psycho-social factors limit the quality of life (QoL) of mentally ill persons. From three theoretical explanation models of QoL — the medical model, labeling theory, and stress process model — we deduced three hypotheses. To test our hypotheses, we re-analysed data from the study “Social integration and quality of life of mentally ill people”. Data were derived from structured interviews with 305 in-patients in psychiatric institutions in the Canton of Zurich (Switzerland), and completed with few informations from their doctors’ files. Various QoL dimensions entered the statistical analyses as dependent variables. Results indicate varied explanation power of the models under investigation depending on the dimension of QoL: psychic symptoms highly influence the health-related QoL, but have only small effects on social and material QoL. Social as well as material QoL are strongly influenced by social support as well as, though to a lesser extent, by life stress events. Chronification of mental illness and perceived discrimination because of the mental disease indirectly affect QoL through reduced social support and increased psychic symptoms. From our results we conclude that social integration and rehabilitation of mentally ill people require a bio-psycho-social treatment approach.     

Quality of Life Experienced by Human Capital: An Assessment of European Cities

This paper aims to provide an assessment of urban quality of life (QoL) of European cities from the perspective of qualified human resources. The competitiveness of cities relies increasingly in their capacity to attract highly educated workers, as they are important assets for firms when choosing a location. Qualified human resources, on the other hand, tend to value QoL over other urban features. This is why policymakers and urban planners need to evaluate QoL of cities and be provided with tools that can guide action to improvements in this area. We assess urban QoL by means of a composite indicator constructed using data envelopment analysis, based on Urban Audit data and Mercer’s framework of analysis, to give account of 246 European cities. Besides presenting a ranking of the best and the worst scores of QoL, this methodology allows benchmarking strategies.     

Issues in Evaluating Importance Weighting in Quality of Life Measures

For most empirical research investigating the topic of importance weighting in quality of life (QoL) measures, the prevailing approach has been to use (1) a limited choice of global QoL measures as criterion variables (often a single one) to determine the performance of importance weighting, (2) a limited option of weighting methods to develop importance weighting, and (3) a limited number of domains to construct the (formative-indicator) measures. Although limitations resulted from a limited choice of global QoL measures as criterion variables to determine the performance of importance weighting and a limited option of weighting methods to develop importance weighting have been recognized previously, little attention has been paid to the impact of non-comprehensive domains in QoL measures constructed based on the formative-indicator approach. Using empirical data, this article revealed the potential impacts of non-comprehensive domains on the evaluation of importance weighting in QoL measures. Results presented in this article showed that both of the two most popular methods of evaluating the performance of importance weighting in QoL measures, correlation and moderated regression analysis, could produce misleading results in the situation when QoL measures constructed using the formative-indicator approach did not include comprehensive domains. Issues discussed in this article are of great importance to research in the field of QoL, especially on the topic of importance weighting in QoL measures.     

Does Mixed Methods Research Matter to Understanding Childhood Well-Being?

There has been a rich debate in development studies on combining research methods in recent years. We explore the particular challenges and opportunities surrounding mixed methods approaches to childhood well-being. We argue that there are additional layers of complexity due to the distinctiveness of children’s experiences of deprivation or ill-being. This paper is structured as follows. Sections 2 and 3 discuss the nature of mixed methods approaches and tensions. Sections 4 and 5 apply these debates to researching childhood well-being in particular, in both Northern and Southern contexts. Section 6 concludes and discusses future work.

A Perception Survey for the Evaluation of Urban Quality of Life in Kocaeli and a Comparison of the Life Satisfaction with the European Cities

Studies on urban quality of life (QoL) have been attracting lots of attention from various countries due to the deterioration of urban environment and decrease of the urban QoL. These studies that have been supported by international organizations such as United Nations, World Bank, OECD, European Commission and EUROSTAT (European Statistics) involve comparative assessment of life satisfaction in the European cities and comparing cities facilitate the exchange of experiment and improve the quality of local policies. The main objective of this study is to measure the local perceptions of QoL in Kocaeli, which is one of the important industrial cities of Turkey and compare the life satisfaction with the European cities. Generally, two different types of indicators have been used: objective and subjective indicators. The objective indicators cover five fields: socio-economic aspects, participation in civic life, education and training, environment and culture, and leisure. The subjective indicators are mainly for valuation of QoL perceptions in a city. In this research, a perception survey will be carried out to measure the local perceptions of QoL in Kocaeli. This survey will present on issues for which the residents in the Kocaeli had widely diverging opinions: employment opportunities, housing costs, safety, cleanliness of city, public transport, air quality and overall satisfaction with the QoL of their city. Thus, the study will become a major reference for local officials to improve QoL in Kocaeli and contribute to researches on QoL in cities.