An Integrated Database to Measure Living Standards

Abstract

This study generates an integrated database to measure living standards in Italy using propensity score matching. We follow the recommendations of the Commission on the Measurement of Economic Performance and Social Progress proposing that income, consumption of market goods and nonmarket activities, and wealth, rather than production, should be evaluated jointly in order to appropriately measure material welfare. Our integrated database is similar in design to the one built for the United States by the Levy Economics Institute to measure the multiple dimensions of well-being. In the United States, as is the case for Italy and most European countries, the state does not maintain a unified database to measure household economic well-being, and data sources about income and employment surveys and other surveys on wealth and the use of time have to be statistically matched. The measure of well-being is therefore the result of a multidimensional evaluation process no longer associated with a single indicator, as is usually the case when measuring gross domestic product. The estimation of individual and social welfare, multidimensional poverty and inequality does require an integrated living standard database where information about consumption, income, time use and subjective well-being are jointly available. With this objective in mind, we combine information available in four different surveys: the European Union Statistics on Income and Living Conditions Survey, the Household Budget Survey, the Time Use Survey, and the Household Conditions and Social Capital Survey. We perform three different statistical matching procedures to link the relevant dimensions of living standards contained in each survey and report both the statistical and economic tests carried out to evaluate the quality of the procedure at a high level of detail.

Economic well-being: Semantic environment and research contexts at a municipal level

“…For example, researchers analysing maternal mortality in countries located in Sub-Saharan Africa [Selebano, Ataguba, 2022] and the use of health services in Botswana [Keetile, Yaya, 2021] consider economic wellbeing as a factor affecting the ability to take care of health. EWB is also attributed to the number of factors reducing the likelihood of domestic violence as identified Journal of New Economy Regional Aspects of Economic Growth by the example of Kyrgyzstan [Chernyak, 2020] and Pakistan [Hussain et al, 2017]. Thus, in developing countries, economic well-being is a means (to maintain health, improve nutrition, achieve physical security, etc.…”

“…An additional ambiguity is due to the concept of subjective well-being. In this context, many of the parameters of the quality of life (including EWB) can be evaluated, but in general it is associated with the psychological satisfaction of an individual and is closer to the quality of life [Chiara, Menon, Perali, 2019;Kulkarni, Kulkarni, Gaiha, 2021].…”

Data Fusion for Joining Income and Consumtion Information using Different Donor-Recipient Distance Metrics

“…In 2009, the Stiglitz-Sen-Fitoussi commission (Stiglitz et al 2009) published a report on welfare and its components, which led to various approaches among NSIs within the European Union to measure the dimensions 'income', 'consumption' and 'wealth' (ICW) as proposed by the commission. Countries which do not measure all three dimensions within a single official statistics data source have been exploring data fusion methods in order to provide a corresponding data base (see e.g., Donatiello et al 2014;Uc ¸car and Betti 2016;Albayrak and Masterson 2017;Dalla Chiara et al 2019). The proposed data fusion methods are largely based on the research conducted by the European Statistical Office (Eurostat) (Lamarche 2017(Lamarche , 2018 and several NSIs (see e.g., D'Orazio et al 2018) on statistically matching data from EU-SILC (European Union Statistics on Income and Living Conditions) with data from the HBS (Household Budget Survey).…”