Estonian Human Development Report
Estonian Human Development Report - Eesti Koostöö Kogu
Estonian Human Development Report - Eesti Koostöö Kogu
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Table 6.2.2. Relationship between the general objective<br />
and subjective well-being indicators with the<br />
<strong>Human</strong> <strong>Development</strong> Index<br />
Figure 6.2.6. Relationship between general objective<br />
and subjective indicators for well-being<br />
Subjective perception of well-being<br />
Objective indicators<br />
Wealth<br />
<strong>Human</strong> capital<br />
2,00000<br />
1.00000<br />
.00000<br />
-1.00000<br />
Romania<br />
Russia<br />
0.944<br />
0.895<br />
ESTONIA<br />
Slovakia<br />
Poland<br />
Latvia<br />
Slovenia<br />
Subjective indicators<br />
Satisfaction with the economic<br />
situation<br />
Satisfaction with health and<br />
education<br />
Denmark<br />
Finland<br />
Switzerland<br />
Norway<br />
Sweden<br />
The Netherlands<br />
Belgium<br />
Ireland<br />
Austria<br />
Spain<br />
Portugal<br />
Hungary<br />
France<br />
Germany<br />
United Kingdom<br />
Ukraine<br />
Bulgaria<br />
-2.00000<br />
-2.000 -1.000 .000 1.000 2.000<br />
Objective well-being<br />
thing to even out income differences (indirect indicator of<br />
prevailing inequality). Hereinafter, we will use the component<br />
scores for social exclusion with the opposite sign<br />
as the cohesion indicator.<br />
To obtain the generalized indicator of the emotional<br />
component of well-being, we combined the assessments of<br />
life satisfaction and the feeling of happiness. The correlation<br />
coefficient for the indicators for the emotional aspect<br />
of well-being in 0.86 and the placement of the countries<br />
based on their indicators is shown in Figure 6.2.5.<br />
Since the cohesion indicator that we have constructed<br />
is not perfect, the picture is better than expected. Portugal,<br />
which already stood out in the previous figures with<br />
its lower positions compared to the other “old” European<br />
Union member states, also ranks below average according<br />
to both these indicators. However, we see relatively large<br />
differences in objective and subjective assessments, especially<br />
among the countries that lag behind.<br />
Finally, we combined the aforementioned indicators<br />
for the various aspects of well-being into general objective<br />
and subjective indicators. A general objective indicator for<br />
well-being was obtained by combining the health, human<br />
capital, government organization and cohesion aspects.<br />
To obtain a general subjective indicator for well-being, we<br />
combined the following subject components of subjective<br />
well-being into one composite indicator: the indicators for<br />
satisfaction with the economic situation, satisfaction with<br />
education and health, confidence as well as life satisfaction<br />
and a feeling of happiness. The mutual correlations of<br />
the indicators describing the general aspects of well-being<br />
were all over 0.73.<br />
Since the most popular indicator for the evaluation of<br />
a country’s developmental level is the <strong>Human</strong> <strong>Development</strong><br />
Index, we checked the correlation of the aforementioned<br />
objective and subjective indicators with this indicator<br />
(see Table 6.2.2.).<br />
Therefore, the <strong>Human</strong> <strong>Development</strong> Index also essentially<br />
reflects well-being. Based on the methodology that<br />
was constructed, it can be expected that the correlation<br />
is strong with the objective indicator, and the correlation<br />
with the indicator that reflects a subjective perception of<br />
well-being is also very strong.<br />
As a result of the cluster analysis made on the basis<br />
of the countries’ individual aspects of objective and subjective<br />
well-being, two groups of countries were differentiated.<br />
The first group included 14 countries that were<br />
better developed based on both objective and subjective<br />
well-being and 10 countries with lower levels of development<br />
(see Figure 6.2.6.). The figure shows the placement<br />
of the countries based on the general objective and subjective<br />
indicators for well-being, whereas the countries<br />
that belong to the other cluster are written in capital letters.<br />
As we can see, as a rule, the countries with lower<br />
objective well-being also have lower subjective indicators,<br />
while higher objective indicators of well-being are<br />
related to higher subjective well-being. Yet, among both<br />
groups we can see fluctuations between countries. In<br />
the cluster of countries with higher levels of well-being,<br />
based on the assessments of objective indicators, Norway<br />
is in a better position and Slovenia and Spain are in<br />
relatively worse positions. However, the subjective perception<br />
of well-being is higher in Denmark and lower<br />
in Germany. In the group of countries with lower wellbeing<br />
levels, the value of the objective indicator is highest<br />
in Portugal. However, Russia stands out for its very<br />
low level of objective well-being, but based on the subjective<br />
indicator, it lies almost in the middle of its group.<br />
Subjectively, of the people who filled out the European<br />
Social Survey questionnaire, those in Ukraine gave their<br />
well-being the lowest assessment, while those in Estonia<br />
the highest. As shown in the figure, the subjective assessment<br />
of well-being in Estonia is significantly higher than<br />
in Hungary, which has an objective indicator similar to<br />
Estonia. At the same time, Estonia’s subjective well-being<br />
level is approximately as high as in Germany, despite the<br />
great difference in the value of the general objective indicators<br />
of these two countries.<br />
It is interesting to analyze the ranking of the countries<br />
based on the differences in their subjective and objective<br />
assessments (Figure 6.2.7.). The countries above the<br />
median line in Figure 6.2.7. are the ones where the subjective<br />
perception of well-being is higher than the objective<br />
indicators. The countries below the line are the ones<br />
where satisfaction with well-being is lower than one might<br />
assume from the objective well-being indicators (let’s<br />
recall that the subjective assessment of well-being originate<br />
from the 2006 European Social Survey). The placement<br />
of the countries starts from the ones with the greatest<br />
satisfaction. Some of the results are quite surprising<br />
and hard to justify.<br />
0.901<br />
0.850<br />
Governance quality 0.907 Trust in people and institutions 0.804<br />
Absence of social<br />
exclusion<br />
General objective<br />
indicator of well-being<br />
0.829 Satisfaction and feeling of happiness 0.887<br />
General subjective indicator of wellbeing<br />
0.947<br />
0.881<br />
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