How Reliable and Consistent are Subjective Measures of Welfare in Europe and Central Asia? Evidence from the Second Life in Transition Survey
This paper analyzes the reliability and consistency of subjective well-being measures. Using the Life in Transition Survey, which was administered in 34 countries of Europe and Central Asia in 2006 and 2010, the paper evaluates subjective well-bein...
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| Format: | Policy Research Working Paper |
| Language: | English |
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2013
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| Online Access: | http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/2013/02/17287547/reliable-consistent-subjective-measures-welfare-europe-central-asia-evidence-second-life-transition-survey http://hdl.handle.net/10986/13150 |
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okr-10986-131502021-04-23T14:03:07Z How Reliable and Consistent are Subjective Measures of Welfare in Europe and Central Asia? Evidence from the Second Life in Transition Survey Cojocaru, Alexandru Diagne, Mame Fatou AFFILIATED ORGANIZATIONS ASSET OWNERSHIP ASSETS BANK ACCOUNT BIASES CONSUMPTION EXPENDITURES COUNTRY DUMMIES COUNTRY LEVEL CREDIT CARD CROSS-COUNTRY DIFFERENCES DEBIT CARD DEMOGRAPHIC CHARACTERISTICS DEMOGRAPHIC COMPOSITION DESCRIPTIVE STATISTICS DEVELOPED COUNTRIES DEVELOPMENT POLICY DURABLE GOODS EARNINGS ECONOMETRICS ECONOMIC CRISIS ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT ECONOMIC PERFORMANCE ECONOMIC REVIEW EMPLOYMENT INCOME EMPLOYMENT STATUS ENROLLMENTS EXCHANGE RATES EXCLUSION EXPENDITURE EXPENDITURES FINANCES FINANCIAL CRISES FINANCIAL CRISIS FOOD EXPENDITURES GDP GDP PER CAPITA GENDER GROSS DOMESTIC PRODUCT HEALTH INSURANCE HIGH CORRELATION HOUSEHOLD ACCESS HOUSEHOLD COMPOSITION HOUSEHOLD CONSUMPTION HOUSEHOLD CONSUMPTION PER CAPITA HOUSEHOLD FINANCES HOUSEHOLD MEMBERS HOUSEHOLD SIZE HOUSEHOLD WELFARE HOUSEHOLDS INCOME INCOME DISTRIBUTION INCOME SHOCK INCOME SOURCE INCOMES INEQUALITY INEQUALITY ESTIMATES INEQUALITY MEASUREMENT INEQUALITY MEASURES INTERNATIONAL BANK LABOR MARKET LIVING STANDARDS MEAN CONSUMPTION MEASUREMENT ERROR MISREPORTING NEGATIVE EFFECT PEOPLES POLICY ANALYSIS POLICY DISCUSSIONS POLICY MAKING POLICY RESEARCH POOR POVERTY LINES POVERTY REDUCTION PRIMARY EDUCATION PRIVATE SECTOR PUBLIC POLICY RELATIVE INCOME RELATIVE INCOME DISTRIBUTION RELATIVE POSITION REMITTANCES RURAL RURAL AREAS SELF-EMPLOYMENT SIGNIFICANT EFFECT SOCIAL ASSISTANCE SOCIAL PROGRESS STATEMENT TRANSITION ECONOMIES TUITION UNEMPLOYMENT UNION WAGES WEALTH Microdata Set This paper analyzes the reliability and consistency of subjective well-being measures. Using the Life in Transition Survey, which was administered in 34 countries of Europe and Central Asia in 2006 and 2010, the paper evaluates subjective well-being measures (satisfaction with life and subjective relative income position) against objective measures of welfare based on consumption and assets. It uses the different formulations of life satisfaction in the survey to test robustness to alternative framing and scaling. It also explores within-household differences in subjective well-being assessments. The analysis finds that subjective relative income is weakly correlated with household relative welfare position as measured by consumption or assets. Life satisfaction, by contrast, is highly correlated with objective and subjective measures of household welfare. It generally reflects cross-country differences in average consumption, assets, or per capita gross domestic product, although Central Asian countries report much higher life satisfaction levels than their incomes would suggest. Two alternative measures of life satisfaction are highly correlated and the correspondence between verbal and numeric scales is strong within a country or groupings of similar countries. Within households, subjective assessments of relative income are roughly consistent but measurement error is correlated with individual characteristics (gender and age of respondents), which could cause systematic biases in the analysis. 2013-04-11T16:58:21Z 2013-04-11T16:58:21Z 2013-02 http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/2013/02/17287547/reliable-consistent-subjective-measures-welfare-europe-central-asia-evidence-second-life-transition-survey http://hdl.handle.net/10986/13150 English Policy Research Working Paper ; No. 6359 CC BY 3.0 IGO http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/igo World Bank Publications & Research :: Policy Research Working Paper Publications & Research Europe and Central Asia Europe and Central Asia Europe and Central Asia |
| repository_type |
Digital Repository |
| institution_category |
Foreign Institution |
| institution |
Digital Repositories |
| building |
World Bank Open Knowledge Repository |
| collection |
World Bank |
| language |
English |
| topic |
AFFILIATED ORGANIZATIONS ASSET OWNERSHIP ASSETS BANK ACCOUNT BIASES CONSUMPTION EXPENDITURES COUNTRY DUMMIES COUNTRY LEVEL CREDIT CARD CROSS-COUNTRY DIFFERENCES DEBIT CARD DEMOGRAPHIC CHARACTERISTICS DEMOGRAPHIC COMPOSITION DESCRIPTIVE STATISTICS DEVELOPED COUNTRIES DEVELOPMENT POLICY DURABLE GOODS EARNINGS ECONOMETRICS ECONOMIC CRISIS ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT ECONOMIC PERFORMANCE ECONOMIC REVIEW EMPLOYMENT INCOME EMPLOYMENT STATUS ENROLLMENTS EXCHANGE RATES EXCLUSION EXPENDITURE EXPENDITURES FINANCES FINANCIAL CRISES FINANCIAL CRISIS FOOD EXPENDITURES GDP GDP PER CAPITA GENDER GROSS DOMESTIC PRODUCT HEALTH INSURANCE HIGH CORRELATION HOUSEHOLD ACCESS HOUSEHOLD COMPOSITION HOUSEHOLD CONSUMPTION HOUSEHOLD CONSUMPTION PER CAPITA HOUSEHOLD FINANCES HOUSEHOLD MEMBERS HOUSEHOLD SIZE HOUSEHOLD WELFARE HOUSEHOLDS INCOME INCOME DISTRIBUTION INCOME SHOCK INCOME SOURCE INCOMES INEQUALITY INEQUALITY ESTIMATES INEQUALITY MEASUREMENT INEQUALITY MEASURES INTERNATIONAL BANK LABOR MARKET LIVING STANDARDS MEAN CONSUMPTION MEASUREMENT ERROR MISREPORTING NEGATIVE EFFECT PEOPLES POLICY ANALYSIS POLICY DISCUSSIONS POLICY MAKING POLICY RESEARCH POOR POVERTY LINES POVERTY REDUCTION PRIMARY EDUCATION PRIVATE SECTOR PUBLIC POLICY RELATIVE INCOME RELATIVE INCOME DISTRIBUTION RELATIVE POSITION REMITTANCES RURAL RURAL AREAS SELF-EMPLOYMENT SIGNIFICANT EFFECT SOCIAL ASSISTANCE SOCIAL PROGRESS STATEMENT TRANSITION ECONOMIES TUITION UNEMPLOYMENT UNION WAGES WEALTH Microdata Set |
| spellingShingle |
AFFILIATED ORGANIZATIONS ASSET OWNERSHIP ASSETS BANK ACCOUNT BIASES CONSUMPTION EXPENDITURES COUNTRY DUMMIES COUNTRY LEVEL CREDIT CARD CROSS-COUNTRY DIFFERENCES DEBIT CARD DEMOGRAPHIC CHARACTERISTICS DEMOGRAPHIC COMPOSITION DESCRIPTIVE STATISTICS DEVELOPED COUNTRIES DEVELOPMENT POLICY DURABLE GOODS EARNINGS ECONOMETRICS ECONOMIC CRISIS ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT ECONOMIC PERFORMANCE ECONOMIC REVIEW EMPLOYMENT INCOME EMPLOYMENT STATUS ENROLLMENTS EXCHANGE RATES EXCLUSION EXPENDITURE EXPENDITURES FINANCES FINANCIAL CRISES FINANCIAL CRISIS FOOD EXPENDITURES GDP GDP PER CAPITA GENDER GROSS DOMESTIC PRODUCT HEALTH INSURANCE HIGH CORRELATION HOUSEHOLD ACCESS HOUSEHOLD COMPOSITION HOUSEHOLD CONSUMPTION HOUSEHOLD CONSUMPTION PER CAPITA HOUSEHOLD FINANCES HOUSEHOLD MEMBERS HOUSEHOLD SIZE HOUSEHOLD WELFARE HOUSEHOLDS INCOME INCOME DISTRIBUTION INCOME SHOCK INCOME SOURCE INCOMES INEQUALITY INEQUALITY ESTIMATES INEQUALITY MEASUREMENT INEQUALITY MEASURES INTERNATIONAL BANK LABOR MARKET LIVING STANDARDS MEAN CONSUMPTION MEASUREMENT ERROR MISREPORTING NEGATIVE EFFECT PEOPLES POLICY ANALYSIS POLICY DISCUSSIONS POLICY MAKING POLICY RESEARCH POOR POVERTY LINES POVERTY REDUCTION PRIMARY EDUCATION PRIVATE SECTOR PUBLIC POLICY RELATIVE INCOME RELATIVE INCOME DISTRIBUTION RELATIVE POSITION REMITTANCES RURAL RURAL AREAS SELF-EMPLOYMENT SIGNIFICANT EFFECT SOCIAL ASSISTANCE SOCIAL PROGRESS STATEMENT TRANSITION ECONOMIES TUITION UNEMPLOYMENT UNION WAGES WEALTH Microdata Set Cojocaru, Alexandru Diagne, Mame Fatou How Reliable and Consistent are Subjective Measures of Welfare in Europe and Central Asia? Evidence from the Second Life in Transition Survey |
| geographic_facet |
Europe and Central Asia Europe and Central Asia Europe and Central Asia |
| relation |
Policy Research Working Paper ; No. 6359 |
| description |
This paper analyzes the reliability and
consistency of subjective well-being measures. Using the
Life in Transition Survey, which was administered in 34
countries of Europe and Central Asia in 2006 and 2010, the
paper evaluates subjective well-being measures (satisfaction
with life and subjective relative income position) against
objective measures of welfare based on consumption and
assets. It uses the different formulations of life
satisfaction in the survey to test robustness to alternative
framing and scaling. It also explores within-household
differences in subjective well-being assessments. The
analysis finds that subjective relative income is weakly
correlated with household relative welfare position as
measured by consumption or assets. Life satisfaction, by
contrast, is highly correlated with objective and subjective
measures of household welfare. It generally reflects
cross-country differences in average consumption, assets, or
per capita gross domestic product, although Central Asian
countries report much higher life satisfaction levels than
their incomes would suggest. Two alternative measures of
life satisfaction are highly correlated and the
correspondence between verbal and numeric scales is strong
within a country or groupings of similar countries. Within
households, subjective assessments of relative income are
roughly consistent but measurement error is correlated with
individual characteristics (gender and age of respondents),
which could cause systematic biases in the analysis. |
| format |
Publications & Research :: Policy Research Working Paper |
| author |
Cojocaru, Alexandru Diagne, Mame Fatou |
| author_facet |
Cojocaru, Alexandru Diagne, Mame Fatou |
| author_sort |
Cojocaru, Alexandru |
| title |
How Reliable and Consistent are
Subjective Measures of Welfare in Europe and Central Asia?
Evidence from the Second Life in Transition Survey |
| title_short |
How Reliable and Consistent are
Subjective Measures of Welfare in Europe and Central Asia?
Evidence from the Second Life in Transition Survey |
| title_full |
How Reliable and Consistent are
Subjective Measures of Welfare in Europe and Central Asia?
Evidence from the Second Life in Transition Survey |
| title_fullStr |
How Reliable and Consistent are
Subjective Measures of Welfare in Europe and Central Asia?
Evidence from the Second Life in Transition Survey |
| title_full_unstemmed |
How Reliable and Consistent are
Subjective Measures of Welfare in Europe and Central Asia?
Evidence from the Second Life in Transition Survey |
| title_sort |
how reliable and consistent are
subjective measures of welfare in europe and central asia?
evidence from the second life in transition survey |
| publishDate |
2013 |
| url |
http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/2013/02/17287547/reliable-consistent-subjective-measures-welfare-europe-central-asia-evidence-second-life-transition-survey http://hdl.handle.net/10986/13150 |
| _version_ |
1764422803860226048 |