Sustainable Housing in the Urban Context: International Sustainable Development Indicator Sets and Housing

Housing, an essential aspect of quality of life, is also significant for sustainable development (SD). All of the major international statements on SD refer to housing or settlement strategies. However, indicator sets derived from these statements often fail to include good indicators of sustainable housing. This article outlines the conceptualisation of SD and housing from the international statements. It proceeds by describing the international indicator sets which have been constructed based on these policy statements. International organisations such as the United Nations Commission on Sustainable Development (UNCSD), the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) and the European Union (EU) have all produced indicator sets. However, this article contends that housing is an underdeveloped indicator and calls for more attention to be paid to the importance of aspects of housing for SD and the measurement of progress towards it via social indicators.

Community Interests and Indicator System Success

Testing the validity of indicator systems is a task almost always left to the scientific community, in standard practice and in keeping with the quest for objectivity prevalent in politics and in society as a whole. This paper calls for a reinvigorated agenda within indicators research to question this practice and develop alternative methodologies to test the validity, legitimacy and impacts of indicator systems. The assumptions of objectivity are not realistic in contemporary policy contexts. As a result, the scientific community is not the only community with a stake in assessing an indicator system; it is perhaps not even the most important one. Four other community types with distinct interests in the design, use and impacts of indicator systems are identified. First is the community of elected officials, whose positions of power make their perspective important and unique; second is the community of engaged publics, whose stake is made clear by the principles of participatory and deliberative democracy; third are communities of cultural difference; and fourth are professional communities. The unique relationship each of these communities has with indicator systems, and thus the tests and challenges offered by each to the practice of indicators, is discussed through a case study of a public participation process for the development of a new set of regional sustainability indicators in Vancouver, Canada. The evidence suggests new research questions for scholars in policy and indicators studies who seek to better understand paths and barriers to implementation and impact in indicators practice, as well as lessons for other local indicators practices.

Measuring Youth Development: A Nonparametric Cross-Country ‘Youth Welfare Index’

This paper develops an empirical methodology for the construction of a synthetic multi-dimensional cross-country comparison of the performance of governments around the world in improving the livelihood of their younger population. The devised ‘Youth Welfare Index’ is based on the nonparametric Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) methodology and allows for cross-country benchmarking and comparison over time. The value added of the youth index is to produce country-specific rankings and trace performance evolution with respect to indicators solely centered on youth, unlike other development indicators like the Human Development Index (HDI) which bundles many social and development indicators.

Parallels Between Objective Indicators and Subjective Perceptions of Quality of Life: A Study of Metropolitan and County Areas in Taiwan

This study explores the consistency between objective indicators and subjective perceptions of quality of life in a ranking of survey data for cities and counties in Taiwan. Data used for analysis included the Statistical Yearbook of Hsiens and Municipalities and the Survey on Living Conditions of Citizens in Taiwan, both given for the year 2000. The Quality of life was examined in seven domains: medical services, domestic finances, work, education, leisure, public safety, and environmental quality. Subjective and objective rankings for each domain of quality of life for 23 areas (some areas are cities and some are counties) are compared. Analysis by means of nonparametric correlation coefficients indicates that there is no significant correlation between objective indicators and subjective perceptions, except in Education and Environmental Quality. Objective indicators of Environmental Quality (air pollution and garbage) are positively correlated with subjective satisfaction with residential environment. But inexplicably, higher levels of literacy and educational achievement are negatively correlated with satisfaction with the educational system. It may be considered that disparity in either average objective conditions or in average subjective perceptions may not adequately depict quality of life differences.

Public Policies and Suicide Rates in the American States

We are interested in the relationship between public policies and outcomes measuring quality of life. There is no outcome more final than the ending of one’s own life. Accordingly, we test the relationship between public policy regimes and suicide rates in the American states. Controlling for other relevant factors (most notably a state’s stock of social capital), we find that states with higher per capita public assistance expenditures tend to have lower suicide rates. This relationship is of significant magnitude when translated into potential lives saved each year. We also find that general state policy liberalism and the governing ideologies of state governments are linked to suicide rates. In response to a growing literature on the importance of non-political factors such as social connectedness in determining quality of life, these findings demonstrate that government policies remain important determinates as well.

Socioeconomic Indicators for Analyzing Convergence: The Case of Greece: 1960–2004

The purpose of this paper is to use socioeconomic indicators for analyzing convergence within Greece at regional (NUTS II) and prefecture levels (NUTS III) since 1960. We use two alternative approaches. The first one is based on the coefficient of variation and the second one on quality of life rankings. We confirm the decline of regional inequalities in Greece, with the exclusion of the 1980s. Regions with increased tourist and trade activity are also regions with high quality of life. Border regions are usually the laggards of social and economic development.

Labour market integration of immigrants: estimating local authority effects

We propose a method for computing indicators of the relative success of local authorities at integrating new immigrants in the labour market, taking account of differences in characteristics of immigrants and local labour markets. The indicator for integration success is based on mean duration from date of residence permit to start of an employment spell. We apply this method to a Danish administrative dataset. Correcting for differences in immigrant characteristics and local labour market conditions has an important impact on the estimated ranking of local authorities. We investigate how robust the ranking is with respect to changes in the specification of criteria for integration success and controls.

Education,Human Development and Quality of Life: Measurement Issues and Implications for India

This paper analyses and compares the measurement of indicators and variables in the construction of education index in Human Development Index (HDI) at the global, national and 18 sub-national human development reports in India since 1990. The results show non-comparability of measurement of the education indicators and variables. This implies that vertical and horizontal comparability of HDI may not be plausible for India. Implications of these analyses are highlighted for measurement of quality of life indices with special reference to physical quality of life index. Policy lessons are derived for future measurement of education index for India in particular, and other developing countries in general.

The Quality of Life in Hong Kong

The AsiaBarometer of 1,000 respondents shows that Hong Kong people have a great desire for materialistic attainment, and such an emphasis on materialism bodes ill for their quality of life. Negative assessments of the public life sphere, which encompasses the natural environment, the social welfare system, and the democratic system, also detract from the experiences of happiness, enjoyment, and accomplishment in Hong Kong. Surprisingly, access to digital communication devices helps Hong Kong people to experience a greater quality of life.

Measuring longevity achievements under welfare interdependencies: a case for joint life expectancy indicators

Whereas period life expectancy constitutes an intuitive indicator of the survival conditions prevailing at a particular period, this paper argues that, given the existence of welfare interdependencies, that widespread indicator is nonetheless an incomplete measure of the longevity achievements relevant for human well-being. The central importance of coexistence for human-beings implies that usual life expectancy measures should be complemented by joint life expectancy indicators, which measure the average coexistence time under particular survival conditions. After a study of the theoretical foundations of ‘single’ and ‘joint’ life expectancy indicators, it is shown that joint life expectancy measures tend to enrich significantly the comparison of longevity achievements across countries and periods. Moreover, the introduction of joint life expectancy indicators—as a complement to conventional life expectancy measures—into multi-variable indexes such as the United Nations’ HDI is also shown to affect international rankings of standards of living to a non negligible extent.

The inter-temporal aspect of well-being and societal progress

The perceptions on well-being and societal progress are influenced also by the quantitative indicators and measures used in the measurement, presentation and semantics of discussing these issues. The article presents a novel generic statistical measure S-time-distance, with clear interpretability that delivers a broader concept to look at data, to understand and compare situations. This methodology can provide a new insight to many problems, an additional statistical measure, and a presentation tool for policy analysis and debate expressed in time units, readily understood by policy makers, media and general public. The benefits of this new view in comparisons, competitiveness issues, benchmarking, target setting and monitoring for economic, employment, social, R&D and environment indicators at the world, OECD, EU, country, regional, city, sector, socio-economic groups, company, project, household and individual levels could be immediately applied to a wide variety of substantive fields at macro and micro levels using existing data and indicator systems from international, national, state, city and local sources. These suggestions are illustrated by comparisons between EU15 and USA.

The Non-Economic Quality of Life on a Sub-National Level in South Africa

Most research on the non-economic quality of life have been (a) on a national level or performed on cross-country comparisons, and/or (b) used subjective indicators to measure how people perceive their non-economic quality of life. In this paper, our main contribution is to construct objective indicators of the non-economic quality of life for 354 sub-national magisterial districts in South Africa. We also compare changes in these indicators over time, and consider methodological issues in the construction of objective indicators of non-economic quality of life. We find that although income does matter for the overall quality of life, non-income components of the quality of life can make an important difference. We find a number of places with low incomes that have been able to achieve higher than expected outcomes in terms of the non-economic quality of life, and that some of the relative income poor areas have improved their non-economic ranking between 1996 and 2004. We also find that the geographical/environmental quality of life in South Africa is better in non-urban areas, where fewer of the country’s population is residing. Significant improvements in the overall quality of life may be achieved through improvements in the urban natural environment.

The Quality of Life in Japan

This study is part of a collaborative project examining the quality of life in Confucian societies in Asia. Our major findings suggest that, when our sixteen specific life domains are grouped into three life spheres, namely, material, post-material, and public, the Japanese people tend to be most satisfied with the post-material sphere of life and least satisfied with the public sphere of life such as the condition of environment and welfare system. In searching the direct, independent effects of demographics, lifestyles, value priorities, and domain assessments on the quality of life, none of the public life domain assessments shows a significant impact on the quality of life, while friendships and spiritual life in the post-material sphere of life are an important determinant. Equally notable is the finding that neither educational attainment nor household income contributes significantly to the experience of subjective well-being. Leading a global lifestyle also affects positively the quality of life. Finally, being married and satisfaction with marital life appear to be powerful and prevalent influence on the quality of life in Japan.

Growing old and staying young: population policy in an ageing closed economy

This paper analyses the relation between public pensions, fertility and child care in a closed-economy overlapping generations model with endogenous fertility. It is shown that raising a child involves two social externalities and that it is optimal to introduce child allowances if the government redistributes income from the young to the old. The optimal child allowance rises when longevity increases. If the costs of raising children depend positively on the wage, a third externality arises and the returns to savings should be taxed.

Human Well Being: A Decile Group Analysis on Indian Household Data

This is an attempt to measure human well being across different sections of the society in India over time where sections have been made in terms of ten decile groups of income. In this context, the extent to which rural sector is lagging behind the urban sector is another dimension of the study. The study uses grouped household data, collected and made available by National Sample Survey Organisation between 1987–1988 and 1999–2000. The inter decile group analysis does not show parity in the attainment levels of the individual indicators of human well being, although an overall systematic inter temporal betterment for each decile group is very clear. Rural–urban gaps in terms of attainment of these indicators is also not so small.

The Catalan premium: language and employment in Catalonia

In this paper, I measure the contribution of knowing Catalan to finding a job in Catalonia. In the early 1980s, a drastic language policy change (normalització) promoted the learning and use of Catalan in Catalonia and managed to reverse the falling trend of its relative use vs Castilian (Spanish). Using census data for 1991 and 1996, I estimate a significant positive Catalan premium: the probability of being employed increases between 3 and 5 percentage points if individuals know how to read and speak Catalan; it increases between 2 and 6 percentage points for writing Catalan.

Measuring Changes in Family Wellbeing in New Zealand 1981–2001

Since the mid-1980s, New Zealand has experienced extensive economic, social and political reforms. The economic impact of these changes has been closely monitored and much commented upon. However, the social impacts of the reforms on different family types are less well understood. This paper outlines a project designed to monitor how the reforms impacted upon specific family types via the use of indicators of family wellbeing constructed from census data. These indicators show that for a range of family types, the reforms of the 1980s and 1990s varied in their impact, with single-parent families faring worst.

An Empirical Analysis of the Interrelationship between Components of the Social Quality Theoretical Construct

Social quality has been presented as a theory that can explain economic and social progress of the daily lives of a population. The components of social quality include: socio-economic security, social inclusion, social cohesion and social empowerment. The social quality perspective views people as interacting within collective identities that provide the contexts of self-realisation. The paper tests the social quality theory by focusing on the relationship between social inclusion and social cohesion, the notion of social relations, to socio-economic security using the context of the family as a facilitator of self-realisation. Using data from the Israel Social Survey 2003, six indicators of socio-economic security were analysed. There was a small but positive and significant relationship between social inclusion and socio-economic security. We found no relationship between socio-economic security and social cohesion. These findings tend to undermine those aspects of social quality theory which posit close connections between these elements on a conceptual level.

A dynamic general equilibrium analysis of the political economy of public education

The primary objective of this paper is to highlight the distinct roles of altruism and of self-interest in the political determination of a public education policy. I assess the relative importance of three factors in the determination of the equilibrium level of this policy: altruism, the impact of public funding of education on social security benefits, and its impact on factor prices. I then focus on the impact of implementing a social security system on the equilibrium levels of education funding and on welfare. I find that although in the benchmark economy, the presence of social security might generate support for public funding of education, its overall effect on the well-being of individuals is negative for any level of social security taxation.