OECD Conference on New Frontiers in Subjective Well-being Measurement, 4 March 2024, Paris, France

1. Domains of Life
Conceptual and Policy Considerations
with measurement relevance
Mariano Rojas
New Frontiers in Subjective Well-being Measurement
March 4, 2024

2. Four arguments. Importance of domains of life
• Life itself. Connecting with people
• Understanding life satisfaction
• Better policies. Efficiency and efficiency in post-growth society
• Fit current institutional framework. Policy and the matching game

3. Life itself

4. Life Satisfaction
Life
Being and acting -
attention and
time-, within a
context
Compartmentalization
Retirement
situation
Physical
Health
condition
Community
Spiritual life Sexual life
Institutions
City/Country
Working
conditions
Occupation
Relationships
at work
Financial
situation
Leisure
activities
Leisure time
Family life
Availability of
free time
Friends
Family
relationships
Family
Social relations
Leisure
Occupation
Health
Economic
Context
Others
Economic
situation
Mental
Health
condition

5. Domains of life
• A construct to grasp people’s lives
• How people think about their life: Family, job, health, so on.
• Facets that call people’s attention, ‘areas’ where they ‘spend’ their life
• Subdomains of life
• ‘Where’ people act and take decisions
• Divorcing, Quitting job, Time to exercise, Borrowing, Relocating
• Compartmentalization of life
• Synergies, non-linearities, commonalities
• Integrated (holistic) view of human beings
• Comprising many aspects in people’s lives
• Satisfaction in domains of life
• Response scale is always an issue. Follows life satisfaction

6. Importance. Many aspects in people’s lives
There is more to life than money, and for
many people there are more important
aspects in life
As well as there is more to life than social
class membership, health, and so on
• Holding a holistic, people-
centered perspective/policy
• Academic disciplines magnify
some issues and neglect others
• Kahneman: “Not everything is as
important as one think when
one is thinking about them”
• Economists
• Why micro-level income-life
satisfaction relationship is weak?
• The relevant question is: Why
should it be strong?

7. On the delineation of
domains of life
• Delimitation and enumeration is arbitrary
• Meaning
• The domains of life must relate to the way people think
about their lives
• Connecting with people, ordinary life
• Parsimony
• The number of domains must be manageable
• Domains should provide conceptually separable
information
• Usefulness
• The delimitation must contribute to the understanding of
the subject and to the purpose of the activity
• Explanatory power

8. Delineations
Aesthetic decision?
Some criteria: Marginal contribution to explanatory power?
• Standard of living
• Health status
• Achievement in life
• Personal relationships
• Personal safety
• Feeling part of a community
• Future security
• Time to do what you like doing
• Quality of the environment
• Your job (for the employed)
• Family life/relationships
• Friendship relationships
• (household) Economic situation
• Health status
• Free time availability/leisure activities
• Occupation . . . (job, but also other
activities)
• Community you live in
• Spiritual life
• Kids: school life

9. Understanding life satisfaction

10. Usefulness. Understanding
life satisfaction
• Human beings –of flesh and blood-
• Many aspects in people’s lives
• Beyond consumers and
economic aspects
• Beyond disciplinary agents
• Closer to real people

11. Sensory
experience
Evaluative
experience
Satisfaction
with family
life
Satisfaction
with free
time
Satisfaction
with
occupation
Satisfaction
with economic
situation
Satisfaction
with health
condition
Satisfaction with life
Positive
affect
Negative
affect
Well-being
framework Eudaimonia

12. Usefulness.
Understanding life
satisfaction
• High life satisfaction in
mid-income countries
• The ‘happy poor’ and
the ‘unhappy rich’

13. Better policies

14. Better policies
• Beyond GDP – beyond economic growth
• Looking for other areas of opportunity to increase well-being, that are sustainable and environmentally
friendly
• People-centered policies
• Holistic
• Enthusiasm of the beneficiaries
• Better using of scarce resources
• Efficiency
• Efficacy

15. Health
Economic
LIFE
SATISFACTION
Social
programs
• Conditional-cash transfer
programs
• Human capital enhancement
• Health and education
• Job-market insertion
• Income benefits

16. Health
Job
Economic
Free time
Rest of family
Family
Community
LIFE
SATISFACTION
Social
Programs

17. Policies to increase life satisfaction
• Domains of life -
Intermediate layer
between LS and realm
of policies, actions and
instruments
• Not mediating
role, but
intermediate
understanding
• Nonlinearity,
synergies,
heterogeneity
across persons

18. Policy: Current institutional
framework

19. The matching game
Affective
Eudaimonia
Evaluative
The institutional
(public) policy-
making framework

20. Ministry of Labor and Social Security
Ministry of Culture
Ministry of Security and Citizen Protection
Ministry of Agrarian, Territorial and Urban Development
Ministry of Health
Ministry Communications and Transportation
Ministry of Public Education
Ministry of Economy
Ministry of Environment and Natural Resources
Ministry of Finance and Public Credit
Ministry of Well-Being (Social Development)
National System for the Comprehensive Development of the
Family (DIF)
Social Security Institute (IMSS)
Affective
Eudaimonia
Evaluative
Matching exercise
?

21. Ministry of Labor and Social Security
Ministry of Culture
Ministry of Security and Citizen Protection
Ministry of Agrarian, Territorial and Urban Development
Ministry of Health
Ministry Communications and Transportation
Ministry of Public Education
Ministry of Economy
Ministry of Environment and Natural Resources
Ministry of Finance and Public Credit
Ministry of Well-Being (Social Development)
National System for the Comprehensive Development of the
Family (DIF)
Social Security Institute (IMSS)
Sat. with
family life
Sat. with
free time
Sat. with
occupation
Sat. with
economic
situation
Sat. with
health
condition
Sat. with
community

22. Connecting with
• National and local governments
• Major organizations: UNICEF, HABITAT, so on
• Political spectrum: Liberals, conservatives, green,
socialists, so on
• Citizens

23. Domains of life. Important in national well-being accounts
(Subjective) well-being
Well-being understanding
Drivers
Policies and Instruments
Life satisfaction
Affective state, evaluation of life
Satisfaction in domains of life
(Family, health, economic, job . . . )
Education, values, material and relational wealth,
health regimes, urban life, free time, community,
institutions, so on
School curricula, working shifts, monetary policy,
urban regulation, so on