Empirical indicators of educational equity and equality: A thai case study

The focus of this paper is social indicator reporting, not the development of scientific generalization. This social indicator analysis involves the development of an extensive set of empirical indicators to show the extent of equity and equality of education. Equity and equality are viewed as distinct concepts, each with its own indicators. The set of indicators proposed is applied to Thailand in a case study. Examples of indicators used are (1) the relationship between socioeconomic background and access to preschool education, (2) the relationship between provincial wealth and opportunities for upper primary education, (3) proportion of females in lower primary schools, and (4) degree of equality among provinces in grant per pupil in primary education. The discrepancy ratio is introduced as an indicator to standardize measures of inequality and inequity. This set of indicators shows moderate levels of inequality and inequity in Thailand, with the most serious problems at the preschool, secondary, and higher education levels. Empirical indicators of this type are viewed as critically necessary for governments everywhere to enable them to chart their progress toward greater equity and equality.     

The Development of the Good Relations Measurement Framework in Britain: A Template for Experiential Social Measurement

This article explores the development of the Good Relations Measurement Framework (GRMF), the first attempt in Britain to create a framework designed to measure how people experience their lives, specifically in relation to their interactions with each other. It provides a reference point for others seeking to construct social indicator measurement frameworks which capture the experiential in the social policy field. In a wider sense, it provides a case study of the use of social indicators within the policy process in the modern polity. The overall objective of the GRMF is to measure the state of Good Relations in Britain. Seven key areas emerged as being crucial for the development of measurement frameworks during the construction of the GRMF. Firstly, a decision has to be taken about the extent to which social measurement frameworks are confined to measurement only or are to have a normative element. Secondly, a working definition of the subject area is needed early in the process. Thirdly, an element of consultation with the public is important. A fourth issue relates to the practical method of construction through the use of ‘long lists’ of potential indicators, and finding a balance between an ‘ideal’ list of potential indicators emerging from public consultation and a second list of existing indicators drawn from existing surveys. A fifth issue relates to the availability of social indicator data at an appropriate geographical level. A sixth issue is that social indicators drawn from different surveys are not always comparable. A final factor is that while quantitative indicators are useful as a tool of social measurement, qualitative research adds a further dimension which is especially important in particular circumstances.     

A social indicator based on time allocation

The authors have developed a social indicator, called Lambda, that has as its base the manner in which individuals allocate their time among various life activities. This indicator does not suffer from the usual demand characteristics and experimenter bias associated with most subjective social indicators, i.e., those based on question-naires. It is not a single rate indicator in the sense of suicide rate. Lambda is a weighted sum social indicator with both subjective and objective aspects. The weights are decided by the population under consideration and not by the investigators or some other outside agents. The elements to be summed are the frequency functions for the discrepancies that arise when individuals state the amount of time they would like to spend in an activitiy versus the amount of time they actually spend at the activity. There are frequency functions for each activity. The properties of this indicator are discussed in detail. A pilot study comparing Lambda to another social indicator and some demographic variables was conducted with 1012 undergraduate students. The results of the pilot study show a high correlation between Lambda and the other social indicator. The results are presented. Lambda is currently being used by the Gallup organization.     

Indicators and Indices of Child Well-being: A Brief American History

This paper traces the history of indicators and indices of child well-being from its origins in the social indicator movement of the 1970s through recent developments in the field. Initial work calling for comprehensive sets of indicators of child well-being and later recommendations for indicator improvement are detailed. Products that resulted from these recommendations, such as comprehensive indicator reports and online resources are described. The development of child well-being indices is shown to parallel the history of indicators. The contributions of state and international indicator and index projects are included as well. Important aspects of child well-being indicator development are uncovered through documenting its history, including the need to focus on subjective as well as objective measures of well-being, and the need to develop indicators for the multiple ecological contexts of children’s lives, but to separate measures of context from measures of child outcomes. A rough consensus emerges across the history of indicator efforts on the critical domains of child well-being: physical, psychological, cognitive, social, and economic well-being. Recent recognition of the importance of indicators of positive development is noted. This paper was funded by the KIDS COUNT project of the Annie E. Casey Foundation.     

CONSTRUCTING A HEALTH AND SOCIAL INDICATOR FRAMEWORK FOR INDIGENOUS COMMUNITY HEALTH RESEARCH

Health and social indicators that capture the distinct historical, social, and cultural contexts of Indigenous communities can play an important role in informing the planning and delivery of community interventions. There is currently considerable interest in cataloguing and vetting meaningful community-level health and social indicators that could be applied to research and health promotion activities in Indigenous communities in Australia, Canada, and New Zealand, inclusive of conventional indicators as well as measures developed specifically for use in or with Indigenous communities. To avoid haphazard selection of indicators, and to assure the comprehensiveness and relevance of any given set of indicators, a framework that can accommodate and conceptually classify indicators representing a full range of domains is required. We report here on the development of a conceptual framework, by which Indigenous community indicators, and more general community-level social indicators, can be sorted, catalogued, and systematically classified within four hierarchical levels. The indicator framework was developed across Canada, Australia and New Zealand in consultation with academic researchers and Indigenous community stakeholders, building from established health and social indicator systems. The Indigenous indicator framework permits Indigenous communities, public health researchers, and funding agencies to compare and select the most appropriate indicators for application in specific contexts from the multitude of existing indicators.     

Lessons from the healthy cities movement for social indicator development

The author investigates emerging developments of social indicators through the experience of a health planning initiative begun in 1986 under the coordination of the World Health Organization (Europe). By 1993 over 400 municipalities in first world countries had voluntarily committed themselves to participation. The paper results from interviews and reviews of some participants' programs and materials, with significant reliance upon material from Canada and the coordinating WHO office. The author divides indicator development into political and technical components, stressing the former. He makes nine principal conclusions relating to indicators' success: (1) three stages of indicator development are understanding, consensus and commitment; (2) indicators must be grounded in target population's reality; (3) indicators are historical artifacts; (4) programs must be in place that make indicator need apparent; (5) process is product; (6) new skills must be supplied; (7) indicators are client-driven; (8) good process protects indicators' integrity from inappropriate influence; and (9) quality is a culturally-derived value defying aggregation.     

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.

Policy Preceding Possibility? Examining Headline Composite Sustainability Indicators in the United Kingdom

Environmental equality, social justice and well-being are national headline indicators for the United Kingdom (UK), and community vibrancy is a rural headline indicator. All four of these indicators were designated as headline indicators prior to any robust definition or methodology for their measurement was articulated. Prior to the establishment of social justice and environmental equality as headline indicators, research commissioned by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs indicated that, at least in the foreseeable future, it would not be possible to operationalise these concepts as indicators of sustainable development. Research into well-being and community vibrancy also illustrated significant problems with their measurement, but in terms of these two indicators that research was carried out after their establishment as headline indicators. These findings illustrate problems with dialogue between the government and relevant experts: difficult to measure concepts have been erroneously designated as headline indicators for the UK.     

Using Ranked Weights and Acceptability Analysis to Construct Composite Indicators: A Case Study of Regional Sustainable Society Index

A variety of published composite indicators, i.e., Energy Trilemma Index and Sustainable Society Index, are commonly aggregated with equal weights. However, this plausible scheme is criticized as eclecticism and ignores the discriminating power of the different indicators. Differing from the traditional methods that assign weights to each indicator for the purpose of aggregation, this paper proposes a new mechanism to construct composite indicators using ranked weights and stochastic multicriteria acceptability analysis. More specifically, this study comprehensively consider all possible preferences among the indicators. Under each preference, we develop a sophisticated mathematical transformation to calculate the least and most favorable scores of each entity, which formulates the lower and upper bounds of the intervals. Then an interval decision matrix, alternatively described as a stochastic decision problem, is formulated to construct the composite indicators. Holistic acceptability indices are generated and regarded as a new composite indicator, which is capable of providing a comprehensive and robust composite indicator with more discriminating power. We apply the proposed method to modify the regional sustainable society index and present the obtained results and comparisons.     

A Non-radial DEA Index for Peruvian Regional Competitiveness

In this paper, we propose a method to measure competitiveness performance at the subnational level, with an application to Peruvian regions. For this, we propose a benefit-of-the-doubt composite index that summarizes the information of several indicators that characterize competitiveness. It is based on an optimization approach, using data enveloping analysis (DEA) techniques, so that each indicator is weighted in an endogenous way, and each unit is evaluated in the most favourable light. Our proposed index is a non-radial variant of the typical DEA scores, which avoids the traditional pitfalls of DEA-based composite indices, such as unreasonable weights. Additionally, we propose a meta-frontier approach in order to compare the competitiveness performances across different periods of evaluation. Our assessments of the Peruvian regions’ competitiveness performance improve on the results of traditional DEA methods, which award high marks to regions with very heterogeneous performance (i.e., regions with very high scores in some indicators, and very poor in others). Additionally, the comparison of the performance across time shows a general decrease in the average competitiveness between 2008 and 2014 of the Peruvian regions.     

Using Perceived Health to Test the Construct-related Validity of Global Quality of Life

Quality of life (QOL) is considered as aglobal, yet unidimensional, subjectiveassessment of one's satisfaction with life. Weexamine the construct validity of the availableindicators of global QOL by constructing acausal model in which QOL is viewed as causallyresponding to several dimensions of perceivedhealth. Global QOL is measured with fiveindicators derived from the literature, andperceived health is measured by eightdimensions of the SF-36 Health Survey. Thestructural equation model describes the QOL andperceived health assessments of 306 coronaryartery bypass graft (CABG) patients andprovides a stringent test of theunidimensionality of the global QOL indicators.The evidence regarding QOL is worrisome, butnot devastating. The acceptable model fit wasachieved by introducing direct effects leadingfrom the General Health Perceptions concept totwo of the five indicators of global QOL. Thissuggests that there are some mechanisms thatinfluence these indicators without firstaltering QOL, or that these indicators are notresponding in unison to QOL. Furthermore, theFaces QOL indicator required measurement errorcorrelations to two of the perceived healthindicators. This also suggests that there aremechanisms beyond pure QOL that act upon thisindicator. But the problematic effects anderror correlations are modest, so the evidenceagainst these indicators is not particularlystrong. Overall, the Self-Anchoring StrivingScale (SASS) indicator and the Life-as-a -Wholeindicator (from Multiple Discrepancies Theory)seem to be the cleanest indicators of globalQOL. General health perceptions and perceivedmental health both influenced global QOL, whilethe other six health perception concepts had noconsistent impact on global QOL.     

A Gender Wellbeing Composite Indicator: The Best-Worst Global Evaluation Approach

In this paper we present a new global evaluation methodology for constructing composite indicators. Given the limitations in the construction of wellbeing indicators that include a gender perspective, this paper proposes separate measures for men and women, using new linear programming models to improve the traditional Data Envelopment Analysis models. We obtain composite indicators using common weights (which are most and least favourable) so that the indicators’ values are able to discriminate between all units and provide a global vision of each one. This approach does not require prior knowledge of the weights for initial indicators, nor does it require a normalization method. Thus, the new composite indicator is less subjective than others. For the practical implementation of this proposal, we use the countries of the European Union as an example.     

‘Valid’ empirical measurement of quality of life?

Results of empirical quality of life studies, undertaken hitherto, are subjectively influenced to a considerable extent by the researchers who try to measure the ‘quality of life’. In substantiation of this allegation it is shown on the basis of empirical data that the results are highly influenced, among others, (1) by the selection of indicators, (2) by the aggregation of indicators to one element, (3) by the weighting or non-weighting of the indicators, (4) by the indicator weigths given by different groups, (5) by employing different measurement techniques. Remarkable progress in empirical measurement could be made by the employment of objective indicators which are weighted by different groups (e.g., citizens, experts, decision makers, etc.). This approach can be called a ‘weighted objective indicator’ approach. In the second half of the article the proposal is made to measure infrastructure disparities both in physical and monetary terms. This permits a comprehensive assessment of the infrastructure's deficits and surplus on the level of indicators, subconcerns, and concerns.     

Life Satisfaction as a Distinguishing Indicator of College Student Functioning: Further Validation of the Two-Continua Model of Mental Health

The two-continua model of mental health contends that both psychological distress and psychological well-being make related-yet-distinct contributions to our understanding of human health and its relations with other quality of life outcomes. Using self-reported somatization, depression, and anxiety symptoms as indicators of psychological distress and self-reported life satisfaction as an indicator of psychological well-being, the present study classified participants into one of four mental-health-status groups—mentally healthy, mentally unhealthy, symptomatic yet content, or asymptomatic yet discontent—and investigated between-group differences across three key indicators of college student functioning: academic achievement, interpersonal connectedness, and physical health. Findings provide further validation for the two-continua model of mental health among college students, showing that, when considered in conjunction with clinical symptoms, life satisfaction serves as a distinguishing indicator of college students functioning across academic, social, and physical health domains—as well as a strong predictor of the absence or presence of clinical symptoms and comorbidity. Implications for theory, practice, and future research are discussed.     

Erratum to: The Measurement of Multidimensional Gender Inequality: Continuing the Debate

The measurement of multidimensional gender inequality is an increasingly important topic that has very relevant policy applications and implications but which has not received much attention from the academic literature. In this paper I make a comprehensive and critical review of the indices proposed in recent years in order to systematise the different underlying ideas. I also present new gender inequality indices that overcome some limitations of the preceding ones. Using United Nations data, empirical results for the new indicators are provided, suggesting that the choice of one indicator or another can make an important difference for the ranking of those countries that have achieved high levels of gender equality.     

The Measurement of Multidimensional Gender Inequality: Continuing the Debate

The measurement of multidimensional gender inequality is an increasingly important topic that has very relevant policy applications and implications but which has not received much attention from the academic literature. In this paper I make a comprehensive and critical review of the indices proposed in recent years in order to systematise the different underlying ideas. I also present new gender inequality indices that overcome some limitations of the preceding ones. Using United Nations data, empirical results for the new indicators are provided, suggesting that the choice of one indicator or another can make an important difference for the ranking of those countries that have achieved high levels of gender equality.     

The Ex-Ante Evaluation of Achieving Sustainable Development Goals

This paper describes the methodology and main results from an overall assessment on future achievement of sustainable development goals. The proposed approach consists of a model-based, looking forward composite sustainable development index—FEEM sustainability index—projected to the future. It represents a first experiment to reproduce the future dynamics of sustainable development indicators over time and worldwide and to assess future sustainability under different scenarios. The assessment presented here is relevant under different viewpoints. First, it has a very broad nature in terms of both geographical coverage and meaningfulness: it considers the multi-dimensional structure of sustainable development by combining relevant indicators belonging to economic, social and environmental pillars for the whole world. Second, the modelling framework to compute future trends of indicators relies upon a recursive-dynamic computable general equilibrium model. This is an ideal tool to look simultaneously at the development of many indicators, their potential interactions and trade-offs, and more in general to the consequences of economic development and/or policies aiming to increase performance in one or more indicators; it allows measuring the overall sustainability under alternative scenarios, across countries and over time. Finally, regarding the construction of the composite indicator, the application of fuzzy measures and Choquet integral increases substantially the model capability allowing taking into account the interactions that exist among the three main pillars of sustainability and the considered indicators.     

What is a quality of life indicator?

The concepts of indicator, social indicator, and life quality indicator are defined and exemplified. An indicator is characterized as an observable variable assumed to point to, or estimate, some other (usually unobservable) variable. It is, then, a symptom of something else. An indicator-indicated relation can be functional or it can consist in statistical correlation. It is a corrigible hypothesis, not an arbitrary definition. As such it is best justified when incorporated into a theory, e.g. a mathematical model. A social indicator is of course an indicator belonging to some sociological context. Finally, a quality of life indicator is one that allows one to estimate degrees of well-being. Some of the problems posed by this definition are discussed. The upshot of the discussion is that a better understanding and assessment of the quality of life calls for more intense theoretical and methodological work rather than an increase in the amount of social and environmental statistics. Here as elsewhere data without ideas are sterile when not misleading.     

Static Numbers to Dynamic Statistics: Designing a Policy-Friendly Social Policy Indicator Framework

In line with the economic crisis and rapid socio-demographic changes, the interest in ??social?? and ??well-being?? indicators has been revived. Social indicator movements of the 1960s resulted in the establishment of social indicator statistical frameworks; that legacy has remained intact in many national governments and international organisations. With this background, this research examines whether existing social indicator frameworks are valid and effective enough to address increasingly complex social issues. The authors argue that, despite some improvements, current social indicators fail to provide an effective framework and tool for measuring the progress of social welfare and also for developing or reforming social policy to cope with newly emerging social problems. While proposing a new social indicator framework based on the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development??s pressure-state-response (PSR) model, the paper argues that the new framework should be more than displaying static numbers but should use dynamic statistics revealing causes and effects and shedding light on social and policy changes.     

Wellbeing in China

Partial order methodologies appear as advantageous tools to disclose evaluative trends and developments for time series as, e.g., the fragile states index (FSI). The present study focuses on the variations in the 12 individual indicators of the FSI over the years 2011–2015. The FSI includes in total 178 states and the present study analyzes both the full set of states and a subset comprising only the 28 European Union states. Clear trends are observed. Thus, on a global scale the primary importance of brain drain apparently is turned into group grievance whereas on the European scale the development discloses the increased problems associated with the increasing number of refugees and migrants as well as the declining economic situation in some states. Further the study discloses a series of so-called peculiar states, i.e., states where single indicators values are markedly higher or lower than expected when comparing to the “main stream” of indicator values for the states studied. In all cases the findings were substantiated and verified by available literature.