Las condiciones laborales en el lugar de trabajo

Economic Development and Growth (Sacks et al, 2010)

Referred to in the National Debate.

This paper presents results that are contrary to those obtained in the ‘Easterlin Paradox’. Evidence finds that first, within a country richer individuals report higher levels of life satisfaction. Second, richer countries on average have higher levels of life satisfaction. Third, by analysing time series of countries it is observed that as economies grow so life satisfaction increases. Analysis suggests that subjective well-being rises with the log of income many previous studies have used a linear function of income. References

Chiripanhura B ‘Measures of economic activity and their implications for societal well-being’ Economic and Labour Market Review, Vol 4, No 7, July 2010

www.statistics.gov.uk/elmr/07_10/downloads/ELMR_Jul10.pdf

Easterlin R, ‘Does Economic Growth Improve the Human Lot?’ in Paul A. David and Melvin W. Reder, eds., Nations and Households in Economic Growth: Essays in Honor of Moses Abramovitz, 1974

Jones R, Chiripanhura B ‘Measuring the UK’s Human Capital Stock’ Economic and Labour Market Review, Vol 4, No 11, November 2010

www.statistics.gov.uk/articles/elmr/elmr-nov10-jones.pdf

Phelps M, et al ‘Total Public Service Output, Inputs and Productivity’ ONS, July 2010

www.statistics.gov.uk/cci/article.asp?id=2488

Sacks D et al, ‘Subjective Well-Being, Income, Economic Development and Growth’ NBER working paper, October 2010

Subjective Well-Being

Measures of subjective well-being aim to capture individuals self-reported perceptions of their own well-being. Respondents are asked to answer a number of questions regarding their feelings in on various domains of their life. The results of these can then be used to investigate the subjective well-being of a country.

Academic

Recommendations to the ONS for Measuring Well-Being (Deaton et al, 2011)

Submission to the National Debate

Recommendations are based on analysis of the Gallup Daily Poll, Day Reconstruction Method and Ecological Momentary

Assessment data. The authors recommend; that additional negative affect questions be used on the Integrated Household Survey, that Cantril’s life evaluation is used rather than a life satisfaction question, to use the monthly Opinions Survey as a test for future questions on the HIS, to initially use a broader set of questions and narrow them down as analysis is undertaken on the data, that question order matters and proper analysis such de bone to minimise the effects.

Comparing measures of subjective wellbeing and some tentative results on the role they should play in policy (Dolan, Metcalfe, 2011)

The paper analyses early results from the Opinions Survey and YouGov surveys to make recommendations for how ONS should measure subjective well-being.

Recommendations include; increasing the measurement of daily lives including negative affects, analysing the reasons why respondents score themselves at the maximum end of the scale, understand the reasons why respondents think a measure of well- being should or should not be used for setting public policy, analyse the robustness of the data to ordering and mode effects.

Population measures of subjective wellbeing: How useful are they? (Eckersley, 2009)

This paper was submitted as part of the National Debate. The paper argues that subjective well-being is an imperfect measure of population well-being. It is just one of a number of needed indicators and its importance should not be overstated. Subjective well-being presents a partial picture, differing from that of other indicators. The paper also criticises comparisons of subjective well-being scores between nations, As cultural and attitudinal differences between nations need to be considered.

Centre for Comparative Social Surveys, City University

This work was submitted by City University whom the ONS has held a number of follow up meetings with.

The Centre for Comparative Social Surveys (CCSS) coordinates the European Social Survey. In rounds three and six the survey carried a well-being module. The results of this enable cross- national comparisons to be made.

The CCSS encourage the use of attitudinal indicators at the macro level; asking individuals their feelings on aspects of society as a whole.

Developments in the Measurement of Subjective Well-being (Kahneman, Krueger, 2006)

This paper was submitted as part of the National Debate. The paper proposes the U index as an alternative measure of subjective well-being. The U index measures the proportion of time an individual spends in an unpleasant state, where negative ranking outweigh positive rankings for that particular time period. The results in the paper show a correlation between life

satisfaction and the amount of time spent in an unpleasant state. The authors conclude that a measure of gross national happiness is overly ambitious with regard to the present state of knowledge and the limitations of subjective well-being measures. Targeted approaches such as the U index are seen as more promising measures of subjective well-being.

Warwick-Edinburgh Mental Well-being Scale (WEMWBS)

This was submitted as part of the national debate.

There is a need to capture mental health as well as physical health to accurately measure well-being. WEMWBS was developed to assess mental well-being in the UK. Respondents are asked to record their answers to statements using a 5-point scale.

Leisure Studies Association Formal submission as part of the National Debate.

The Association argues that a measure of national well-being needs to capture an understanding of the work-life balance. As part of this, individuals’ freedom from constraints and obligations in their lives need to be measured.

World Database of Happiness Referred to in the National Debate.

The World Database of Happiness, based at the Erasmus University Rotterdam is a register of scientific research on methods for measuring happiness.

The development and validation of a This paper was submitted as part of the National Debate. general measure of well-being: the BBC

well-being scale (Kinderman et al, 2010) Paper presents the well-being scale developed with BBC Lab UK. The scale proposed is a 24-item scale with respondents scoring themselves from 1- 4 on each item. Domains were selected in order capture physical health, psychological health, social relationships, environment, self acceptance, autonomy, environmental mastery, purpose in life, positive relations, personal growth and negative affect.

‘Quality of Life in Britain’ surveys Referred to in the National Debate.

Surveys conducted in the 1970s by the Mark Abrams and John Hall at the Social Science Research Council’s survey unit. Two national surveys containing measure of subjective well-being were run, in 1973 and 1975.

Government

Health and Safety Executive Paper submitted as a contribution to the National Debate.

With most people spending much of their adult lives at work the Health and Safety Executive submission underlined the

importance of work to a measure of national well-being. Previous work by the Executive defined nine dimensions as being key factors in the quality of working life these include; work-life balance, type of job, work environment, employee / employer relationships.

Department for Culture, Media and Sport

Paper submitted as a contribution to the National Debate. DCMS strongly support the inclusion of a measure of the degree to which individuals partake in cultural and sporting activities. The links between partaking in cultural and sporting activities and improving well-being have been recognised in the Taking Part survey.

DCMS also argue against the use of a single indicator for a measure of national well-being. Highlighting the difficulties of weighting and combining indices in different units.

Commercial

Gallup – Healthways Well-Being Index The Gallup – Healthways Well-Being Index interviews 1000 adults daily to assess the well-being of the U.S across six domains; life evaluation, emotional health, physical health, healthy behaviour, work environment and basic access. Life evaluation is measured using Cantril’s ladder. Thresholds of ‘thriving’, ‘struggling’ and ‘suffering’ are used to describe scores of 7 or above, 4 – 6 and 0 – 3 respectively

EuroQol EQ-5D The EQ-5D is a subjective measure of health. Respondents are

asked to asses themselves on mobility, self-care, usual activities, pain / discomfort and anxiety / depression. With each domain ranked on a 3-point verbal scale. Overall health is assessed subjectively on a 100-point scale.

Third sector

The Children’s Society Submitted as part of the National Debate.

The Children’s Society has carried out a number of surveys of child subjective well-being in the UK. The Society has created the ‘Good Childhood Index’ which is the average of score of ten questions using a 0-10 scale. Domains used include family, health, money, school… In addition a five-item measure of overall well-being is used with respondents asked to indicate how much they agree or disagree with statements such as ‘My life is going well’, ‘I have what I want in life’.

In their formal response to the national debate. The Children’s Society recommended that the ONS include an index of children and young people’s well-being in the well-being framework; this should include both subjective and objective measures.

new economics foundation nef national accounts of well-being.

nef’s national accounts of well-being was carried out in conjunction with the results from the subjective well-being modules of the European Social Survey. Around 40,000

responses were received from respondents in twenty-two different countries.

In ‘Measuring our Progress: The power of well-being’ nef outline their recommendations for how national well-being should be measured. The framework used is one which puts human well- being as the key goal, environmental resources as the key resources and the economy as one of the most important human systems.

World Health Organisation Quality of Life Measure

The World Health Organisation defines quality of life as

‘Individuals' perception of their position in life in the context of the culture and value systems in which they live and in relation to their goals, expectations, standards and concerns.’ The short for of the measure is a series of 26 questions, where respondents rank themselves on a 5-point scale in relation to different aspects of their life, including; health, lifestyle and environment.

Respondents are asked to consider their answers in relation to the past four weeks of their life.

References

Deaton A, Kahneman D, Krueger A, Schkade D, Schwartz N and Stone A, ‘Recommendations to the ONS for Measuring Well-Being’, February 2011

Dolan, P. & Metcalf, R. (2011) Comparing measures of Subjective well-being and views about the role they should play in policy

Eckersley R, ‘Population Measures of Subjective Wellbeing: How useful are they?’ Social Indicators Research, Vol94, No 1, 2009

EuroQol www.euroqol.org/

Gallup – Healthways Well-Being Index - www.well-beingindex.com/default.asp

Kahneman D and Krueger A ‘Developments in the Measurement of Subjective Well-Being’ Journal of Economic Perspectives, Vol 20, No 1, 2006

Leisure Studies Association www.leisure-studies-association.info/LSAWEB/

nef National Accounts of Well-being - www.nationalaccountsofwellbeing.org/

‘Quality of Life in Britain’ surveys www.surveyresearch.weebly.com

Stewart-Brown S, et al. ‘The Warwick-Edinburgh Mental Well-being Scale (WEMWBS): development and UK validation’ Health and Quality of Life Outcomes, 2007

World Database of Happiness worlddatabaseofhappiness.eur.nl/index.html

World Health Organisation www.who.int/substance_abuse/research_tools/whoqolbref/en/

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