Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/273703 
Year of Publication: 
2022
Series/Report no.: 
IZA Policy Paper No. 194
Publisher: 
Institute of Labor Economics (IZA), Bonn
Abstract: 
Societal progress is characterized primarily as an improvement in the distribution of wellbeing; however, a small set of additional variables are also necessary. Social indicators based on objective measures are inherently limited by the subjective assessments necessary of "experts" to select and combine measures into indicators. Subjective well-being overcomes this limitation but is insufficient to guide all policy decisions and address certain issues, especially those relating to future concerns. Subjective well-being is the single most important, but necessarily not the only, indicator of progress. This entry also briefly discusses: recent history of well-being measurement; what makes people better off in theory; the difference between subjective and 'objective' measures of well-being; their limitations; what we need to improve measures of progress, and examples of government implementation of well-being indicators.
Subjects: 
well-being
wellbeing
societal progress
quality of life
GDP
subjective well-being
social indicators
beyond GDP
SDGs
life satisfaction
JEL: 
I31
O10
Document Type: 
Working Paper

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