Final Report Summary - EWEBE (Micro and Macro Determinants of Well-Being)
The original contribution of the project within the wellbeing literature hinges upon the analysis of the heterogeneity of individual wellbeing expenditure preferences and on the expenditure trade-offs among different wellbeing domains. Respondents to an online survey are asked to simulate the policymaker dilemma of allocating a limited sum among alternative policies aimed at increasing wellbeing in different domains. Our reference is a wellbeing indicator, the BES (Sustainable and Equitable Wellbeing) indicator, recently created and adopted as a benchmark in Italy by the National Statistical Institute (ISTAT), with the cooperation of a coalition of representatives of different interest groups of the Italian society (CNEL). Our work provides valuable and precious information to policymakers focusing on: (i) the wellbeing preferences of their citizens and on the socio-demographic factors explaining their heterogeneity; (ii) the geographical dimension of wellbeing and its distribution across the country; (iii) the political geography of large coalition items. Our findings show that the share of temporary jobs is significant on the propensity of respondents to invest in work and life balance, the amount of voluntary aid affects positively the propensity to invest in social relationships, while the relative abundance of social cooperatives reduces it. Regional trust in justice has a strong and significant effect on the propensity to invest in politics and institutions. Our results can inform policy at the local level and provide useful hints for those who want to create large coalitions creating bridges and consensus between left and right. We also look at the determinants of financial inclusion at various levels of geographic aggregation across Europe to complement the regional well-being analysis described above. These results provide useful information for mapping financial inclusion across Europe during the crisis. Using regional financial and economic micodata from the second wave of the LiTS II survey undertaken across Europe during the 2008-2010 global crisis, we show that the likelihood of financial inclusion depends on certain households' social, economic and demographic characteristics such as income, type of employment, marital status, education, age as well as religion and ethnicity. We find evidence that households exposed to negative job and income shocks during the crisis and without any physical asset to pledge are less likely to be financially included, especially in Eastern Europe. Our analysis also suggests that to compensate for the harshness of the financial crisis, particularly in Eastern Europe, households with stronger personal and social ties are more likely to be financially included, probably because the social networks to which they belong act as a substitute for traditional financial collateral. In addition, a broader use of financial services at the local level generates financial multiplier effects that may favour financial inclusion at the individual level; hence, promoting financial inclusion, especially in deprived and financially marginalised areas, is therefore a step-forward for the social role of banks.
Contact: Dr Luisa Corrado, University of Rome Tor Vergata, Department of Economics and Finance, e-mail: luisa.corrado@uniroma2.it https://sites.google.com/site/luisacorrado/
Contact: Dr Luisa Corrado, University of Rome Tor Vergata, Department of Economics and Finance, e-mail: luisa.corrado@uniroma2.it https://sites.google.com/site/luisacorrado/