Métricas que Marcan la Diferencia: Uso de los Indicadores de Bienestar y del Desarrollo Sostenible en América Latina y el Caribe/Metrics that Make a Difference: Policy Uses of Well-being and Sustainable Development Indicators in Latin America and the Caribbean, 23-24 October 2019, Bogotá, Colombia. More information at: www.oecd.org/statistics/lac-well-being-metrics.htm

1. Mariano Rojas

2. Subjective well-being
Main message
 It is important to gather SWB information
 Information not available everywhere else
 It is convenient to incorporate SWB in
 Development strategies
 Public policy

3. Subjective well-being
 Well-being as it is experienced by people
 Affective, Evaluative, Sensorial
 Satisfaction with life
 An overall synthesis people make on how life is going
on: Life satisfaction
 People can report it

4. SWB and Development
 Development
 More than just economic growth and high per capita income
 More than just abating deprivations
 In any conception of development people should be
satisfied with their life
 The labyrinthic search for development in Latin America
 More reflection on the conception

5. Many problems in Latin America
 Focus on facing problems and deprivations
 An in fact this is important, because they reduce
SWB
 But what about positive factors in LA?

6. Life satisfaction: 1 to 4
Latin America
Latinobarometer 2013

7. High subjective well-being in LA
 Large
percentage of
the population
report high
life
satisfaction
 World Value
Survey, wave 6
(2010-2014),
scale 1 to 10.

8. High subjective well-being in LA
 Outstandingly
high positive
affect
Top 10 Countries in the World in Positive Affect
Mean values by country
2006 - 2016
World Rank Country Positive affect
1 Paraguay 0.842
2 Panama 0.833
3 Costa Rica 0.829
4 Venezuela 0.824
5 El Salvador 0.818
6 Guatemala 0.812
7 Colombia 0.810
8 Ecuador 0.809
9 Canada 0.804
10 Philippines 0.800
Source: Gallup World Poll waves 2006 to 2016.

9. High subjective well-being in LA
 Important to know what explains high SWB in Latin
America
 Drivers we are neglecting: Other wealth
 Relational wealth
 Quality and quantity of interpersonal relations
 Warm, person-based

10. Relational wealth
 1. Manifestations of
affection with your
partner
 2. Manifestations of
affection with your
children
 3. Everyone’s
decisions are
respected in the
family
 4. Taking into
consideration the
well-being of my
family when making
important decisions
 5. Being with the
family gives the most
meaning to my life
 6. Doing joint
activities –such as
reading or playing
sports- with children
 7. Helping and
supporting each
other in the family.

11. Relational wealth
 1. Sharing positive
emotions with
close family
 2. We in the family
spend a lot of time
doing things
together
 3. Taking time to
share with partner
 4. Taking time to
share with
children
 5. Sharing at least
one meal a day
with children
 6. Taking time to
share with adult
children

12. Relational wealth
 Very
important
driver of life
satisfaction
5.16
5.53
5.85
5.71
4.8
5
5.2
5.4
5.6
5.8
6
Relations Income
Life Satisfaction Gradient
Latin America
Very low (poor) High (Non Poor)

13. Relational wealth
 Risk of deterioration
 If we do not measure it we do not know what is
happening
 We do not know how strategies are affecting it
 Major worry
 we already have many problems, what would
happen is we also have relational wealth-
deterioration?

14. SWB and Development: Lessons
 Academic sector
 Do not confuse quality and quantity of interpersonal
relations with social capital
 The study of quality and quantity of interpersonal relations
 NSOs
 Develop SWB accounts
 Incorporate quality and quantity of interpersonal relations

15. SWB and Development: Lessons
 Governments
 Education and not only human capital, Work-life balance,
Public space and friendly cities, Neighborhoods rather than
housing solutions, Parenting
 International organizations
 It is not only about economic growth or abating privations
 it is about people being satisfied with their life
 Recognizing the relevance of interpersonal relations

16. On SWB and public policy
 SWB is a necessity, not a luxury
Efficient use of resources
Facing trade offs: e.g. domestic violence vs.
infrastructure
Having more instruments at disposal: e.g.: dealing
with chronic problems
Broader perspective: the whole population
‘Getting out of poverty’, where to go?

17. On SWB and public policy
 Focus not only on deprivations but also on
other wealth
 Unobserved costs –and benefits- of many policies
 Policies that citizens appreciate
 Indicators people get enthusiastic about
 People care and show it in electoral results

18. SWB: Final Message
 NSOs: Gather SWB information
 Information not available everywhere else
 Governments
 High well-being impact policies
 People will appreciate
 International organizations
 Broaden development conception