Abstract
In this study, we identify some individual and contextual factors potentially affecting subjective well-being in developing countries and check their effect in the Ecuadorian case. Ecuador is an oil country where attempts have been made to overcome deep social and territorial inequalities by placing human well-being at the core of public policy through the National Plan for Good Living. By means of ordinary least squares and ordered logit with clustered standard errors, as well as multilevel ordered logit models, we find that oil-dependent territories negatively affect well-being. Moreover, women and indigenous people report lower well-being, while personal income, education, housing quality, institutional trust, health insurance and social relationships can improve it. From a policy perspective, we find that basic unmet needs still need to be fulfilled to increase well-being, and further improvements of the institutional framework, redistributive system and inclusion policies are required. In this respect, we observe that Good Living-based policy accurately addresses these elements and, therefore, has great potential for application in other countries with similar characteristics.
Highlights
In recent years, subjective well-being has provoked increasing interest from both social science researchers and governmental institutions
Our study examines the individual and contextual factors that affect individual well-being in Ecuador, focusing on aspects that characterize the socio-economic and socio-demographic structure of this country
By means of two proxies, we show that social relationships are a positive driver of well-being
Summary
Subjective well-being has provoked increasing interest from both social science researchers and governmental institutions In developed countries, it is worth mentioning the Canadian Index of Wellbeing, the measure of “equitable and sustainable wellbeing” in the Italian State Balance in 2016, as well as policy initiatives related to wellbeing in the UK (Dolan et al 2011), France (Tavernier et al 2015) and Germany (Die Bundesregierumg 2017). Developing countries are beginning to consider well-being formally, with Mexico, Brazil and Ecuador including it in their constitutions. In the latter, well-being is incorporated through the principle of “good living”, based on sumak kawsay, an ancestral Quechua concept focused on a holistic approach to human well-being, involving harmony with oneself, the community and nature (see Caria and Domínguez 2016, for further details). The last census information shows that the ten most populated cities account for half of the population of the country, and the two main cities, Quito and Guayaquil, account for one-third and a half of the gross value added (GVA), respectively (Central Bank of Ecuador 2017)
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