IAOS-OECD 2018 conference, 19-21 September 2018, Paris. More information at: http://www.oecd.org/iaos2018/

1. Individual and contextual factors related to
subjective well-being: an analysis of the
evolution during and after recession in Italy
Alessandra Tinto, Rita De Carli, Silvia Montecolle, Sante Orsini, Miria Savioli
(Istat)
16th Conference of IAOS
Paris, 19- 21 September 2018
1

2. 1. We refer to the framework for measuring well-being in Italy (Bes) to identify individual
and contextual factors associated with subjective well-being in Italy (Boarini et al
2012).
2
Individual and contextual factors related to subjective well-being: an analysis of the
evolution during and after recession in Italy
Paris, 19- 21 September 2018
Aim of the study
2. Study possible changes in the structure of associated factors before, during and after
the recession in Italy, using individual data coming from the sample survey "Aspects of
daily life" carried out annually.

3. The Bes framework aims at giving a picture of well-being as a multidimensional
concept, including one specific domain on subjective well-being.
The Subjective Well-Being (SWB) appears as a fundamental and distinct
element: the well-being of a nation is not completely described if it is not also
taken into account what is the individual reflection of the well-being itself.
On the other hand the other Bes domains can be also regarded as factors
related to SWB itself.
3
Bes framework and Subjective well-being
Individual and contextual factors related to subjective well-being: an analysis of the
evolution during and after recession in Italy
Paris, 19- 21 September 2018

4. 4
Covariates
Subjective
well-being
Socio-
demographic
controls
Other aspects
related to the
domains of
well-being
Individual and contextual factors related to subjective well-being: an analysis of the
evolution during and after recession in Italy
Paris, 19- 21 September 2018

5. SWB is analyzed referring to three different components: affective, cognitive and
eudaimonic (Ryff, 2000; OECD, Guidelines on Measuring Subjective Well-being, 2013).
This analysis will focus only on the cognitive component, using the Bes indicator on life
satisfaction:
Percentage of people aged 25-64 who are very satisfied with their life, giving a score from
8 to 10 to the question «Currently, how satisfied are you with your life as a whole?», on a
0 to 10 scale, where 0 means «not satisfied at all» and 10 «very satisfied»
In particular the attention is focused on the adult population aged 25-64 and the indicator
is available from 2010 to 2016.
5
Measures of subjective well-being - Life satisfaction
Individual and contextual factors related to subjective well-being: an analysis of the
evolution during and after recession in Italy
Paris, 19- 21 September 2018

6. 6
Life satisfaction in the EU – Average score among population 16+
8,00 8,0 8,0
7,8 7,8
7,6 7,5 7,4 7,3 7,3 7,3
7,1 7,1 7,1 7,0 7,0 6,9 6,9
6,7 6,7
6,5 6,5
6,3 6,2 6,2 6,2 6,1
4,8
Ue28
Source: EU-Silc survey, 2013
Individual and contextual factors related to subjective well-being: an analysis of the
evolution during and after recession in Italy
Paris, 19- 21 September 2018

7. Considering the second wave of the
economic crisis in Italy occurred in 2012,
three moments in time were chosen to
analyze the covariates of SWB:
2011 (before the second wave of
economic crisis – peak of life
satisfaction),
2013 (during the crisis),
2016 (beginning of recovery of economy
and life satisfaction).
7
Trend of SWB in Italy: the choice of points in time
Satisfaction with life as a whole of Italian population aged 25-64, percentage expressing a 0-5,
6-7 and 8-10 score, and mean values – years 2010-2016
10,3
13,4 18,0 18,3 18,0
19,2
14,8
43,3
46,3
35,4 35,0 34,9 34,5
41,0
0
5
10
15
20
25
30
35
40
45
50
2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016
Not satisfied
(score 0-5)
Very satisfied
(score 8-10)
Individual and contextual factors related to subjective well-being: an analysis of the
evolution during and after recession in Italy
Paris, 19- 21 September 2018

8. 8
Covariates
Subjective
well-being
Socio-
demographic
controls
Other aspects
related to the
domains of
well-being
Individual and contextual factors related to subjective well-being: an analysis of the
evolution during and after recession in Italy
Paris, 19- 21 September 2018

9. Gender
Females
Males
Age
25-34
35-44
45-54
55-64
Geographical breakdown
North
Center
South and Islands
9
Socio-demographic controls
Role within the family
Couple without children
Parent within a couple with children
Parent within a lone parent family
Living alone
Child
Other
Municipality dimension
Urban and suburban area
Up to 10,000 inhabitants
10,001 inhabitants or more
Level of education
Low
Medium
High
Individual and contextual factors related to subjective well-being: an analysis of the
evolution during and after recession in Italy
Paris, 19- 21 September 2018

10. 10
Covariates
Subjective
well-being
Other aspects
related to the
domains of
well-being
Individual and contextual factors related to subjective well-being: an analysis of the
evolution during and after recession in Italy
Paris, 19- 21 September 2018
Socio-
demographic
controls

11. The project started in 2010
Aim: to produce a set of indicators to provide a shared view of well-being in Italy
Built through a participative process involving:
a) Steering Committee: stakeholders and Istat experts, to identify the domains and to agree on the
final list of indicators;
b) Scientific Commission: experts in different fields, to select potential indicators
c) Public consultation
Wide dissemination: Annual reports; Website with documents, data, dashboard
11
Equitable and Sustainable Well-being in Italy
Individual and contextual factors related to subjective well-being: an analysis of the
evolution during and after recession in Italy
Paris, 19- 21 September 2018
Benessere (WELL-BEING): multidimensional analysis of relevant aspects of quality of life.
Equo (EQUITABLE): focus on distributional aspects of the determinants of well-being.
Sostenibile (SUSTAINABLE): sustainability for future generations.

12. 12
Measuring well-being in Italy: Bes framework
12 DOMAINS 129 INDICATORS
Individual and contextual factors related to subjective well-being: an analysis of the
evolution during and after recession in Italy
Paris, 19- 21 September 2018
1 Health
2 Education and training
3 Work and life balance
4 Economic well-being
5 Social relationships
6 Politics and institutions
7 Safety
8 Subjective well-being
9 Landscape and cultural heritage
10 Environment
11 Innovation, research and creativity
12 Quality of services
BES

13. Indicators to be considered as covariates of SWB are identified to cover each Bes domain
(preference to indicators included in other studies from the literature).
All data must come from the same data source to be able to perform analysis on micro
data.
In Italy the survey covering the highest proportion of Bes indicators (25%) is the annual
multipurpose survey on «Aspects of daily life».
For the indicators selected which are derived from a different data source, a proxy
indicator was found from the «Aspects of daily life» survey.
In this way it was possible to cover 10 domains, other than the SWB domain, leaving out
the domain of innovation, research and creativity, as we could not find a satisfactory proxy
to cover it in the AVQ survey.
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Indicators representing the Bes domains
Individual and contextual factors related to subjective well-being: an analysis of the
evolution during and after recession in Italy
Paris, 19- 21 September 2018

14. 14
Other aspects related to well-being (Bes domains): selected indicators
Bes Domain Selected indicator Bes indicator
Health Perceived health Proxy
Level of education Proxy
Syntetic indicator of the level of cultural
participation
Yes
Work and life balance Labour status Proxy
Subjective evaluation of the economic
resources of the household
Proxy
Dwelling conditions Proxy
People to rely on Yes
Social participation Yes
Voluntary activity Yes
Generalized trust Yes
Politics and institutions Trust in the Parliament Yes
Safety Fear of crime rate Yes
Landscape and cultural heritage Landscape affected by deterioration Yes
Environment Satisfaction for the enviroment Yes
Quality of services Service accessibility Yes
Education and training
Economic well-being
Social relationships
Individual and contextual factors related to subjective well-being: an analysis of the
evolution during and after recession in Italy
Paris, 19- 21 September 2018
15 indicators (of which
5 proxy), covering 10
Bes domains

15. 15
Two steps of analysis
Individual and contextual factors related to subjective well-being: an analysis of the
evolution during and after recession in Italy
Paris, 19- 21 September 2018

16. 16
RESULTS: Logistic regression estimates of propensity of giving 8-10 score to life
satisfaction – socio-demographic variables - 2016
0,14
-0,14
0,05
0,48
0,41
0,10
0,37
-0,01
0,13
0,22
0,13
0,21
-0,2 -0,1 0,0 0,1 0,2 0,3 0,4 0,5 0,6
Other
Child
Parent within a lone parent family
Parent within a couple with children
Couple without children
ROLE WITHIN THE FAMILY (ref. Living alone)
10,001 inhabitants or more
Up to 10,000 inhabitants
MUNICIPALITY DIMENSION (ref. Urban and suburban area)
45-54
35-44
25-34
AGE (ref. 55-64)
Center
North
GEOGRAPHICAL BREAKDOWN (ref. South and Islands)
Light colors not significant
Dark colors significant at least p<0.05

17. 0,09
0,32
0,17
0,35
0,14
0,23
0,11
0,49
0,70
0,34
0,28
0,08
0,19
0,03
0,61
1,30
-0,1 0,1 0,3 0,5 0,7 0,9 1,1 1,3
No difficult service accessibility
Service accessibility (ref=Difficult service accessibility)
Quite satisfied/very satisfied
Satisfaction for the enviroment (ref=Not/a little satisfied)
Yes
Feeling safe when walking alone in the dark (ref. No)
Score 6-10
Trust in the Parliament (ref=Score 0-5)
Yes
Generalized trust (ref. No)
Yes
Voluntary activity (ref. No)
Yes
Social participation (ref=No)
Dwelling in not bad conditions
Dwelling conditions (ref. Bad conditions)
Excellent/Adequate
Economic resources (ref. Poor/inadequate)
Other condition
Employed
Labour status (ref. Unemployed)
Medium
High
Level of education (ref. Low)
Intense (3+ activities)
Cultural participation (ref. <3 activities)
Neither good nor bad
Good/very good
Perceived health (ref. Bad/very bad)
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RESULTS: Logistic regression estimates of propensity of giving 8-10 score to life
satisfaction – Bes framework covariates - 2016
Health
Education and
training
Work
Economic well-being
Social
relationships
Politics and institutions
Safety
Environment
Quality of services

18. 18
RESULTS: Logistic regression estimates of high scores of life satisfaction (8-10):
Average Marginal Effect – Bes framework covariates
15,3
14,0
13,1
10,2
7,2
10,5
5,9
9,2
10,6
25,9
18,7
25,6
0,0 5,0 10,0 15,0 20,0 25,0 30,0
2016
2013
2011
ECONOMIC RESOURCES OF THE HOUSEHOLD:
Excellent / Adequate vs Poor / Absolutely inadequate
2016
2013
2011
DWELLING CONDITIONS:
Not bad condition vs Bad condition
2016
2013
2011
LABOUR STATUS:
Employed vs Unemployed
2016
2013
2011
PERCEIVED HEALTH:
Good/very good vs Bad/very bad

19. 19
RESULTS: Logistic regression estimates of high scores of life satisfaction (8-10):
Average Marginal Effect – Bes framework covariates
7,6
6,6
10,6
3,0
6,4
8,3
4,9
4,9
3,1
2,3
2,3
-0,3
0,9
2,4
0,7
-2,0 0,0 2,0 4,0 6,0 8,0 10,0 12,0
2016
2013
2011
TRUST IN THE PARLIAMENT: Yes vs No
2016
2013
2011
GENERALIZED TRUST: Yes vs No
2016
2013
2011
VOLUNTARY ACTIVITY: Yes vs No
2016
2013
2011
SOCIAL PARTICIPATION: Yes vs No
2016
2013
2011
HIGH LEVEL OF CULTURAL PARTICIPATION: Yes vs No

20. This analysis is an attempt to investigate a complex phenomenon such as SWB, including different
types of covariates and the time dimension, referring to a wide framework to measure well-being
such as the Bes framework in Italy.
First phase of the analysis: the picture we get for association of socio-demographic covariates with
high level of life satisfaction is stable in the three years considered; more variability over time for the
explanatory variables related to the domains of well-being.
Second phase of the analysis: the AME method allowed to compare the strength of the association
in three different moments (pre-during-post recession).
Areas in which the impact of the association is weaker during the crisis: health.
Areas in which the impact of the association is stable in the three years considered: economic
well-being.
Areas in which the impact of the association is stronger during the crisis: social relationships.
20
Conclusions and future paths (1)
Individual and contextual factors related to subjective well-being: an analysis of the
evolution during and after recession in Italy
Paris, 19- 21 September 2018

21. Being able to analyze the phenomenon before and after the economic recession was an opportunity
which allowed to monitor direct and indirect impact of the context on individual perception of life
satisfaction as an important part of SWB.
It will be important to study also interlinkages among domains, to better understand variations over
time and to repeat the analysis on 2017 data, when the recovery of economy has consolidated more.
The future developments of the multipurpose annual survey AVQ could allow in the future to extend
the study of SWB taking into account also the “affect” component.
21
Conclusions and future paths (2)
Individual and contextual factors related to subjective well-being: an analysis of the
evolution during and after recession in Italy
Paris, 19- 21 September 2018

22. 22
Thank you!
tinto@istat.it