Paradox and Perception : Measuring Quality of Life in Latin America

The OC quality of lifeOCO concept of quality of life is a broad one. It incorporates basic needs but also extends beyond them to include capabilities, the OC livabilityOCO of the environment, and life appreciation and happiness. Latin AmericaOCOs diversity in culture and levels of development provide a laboratory for studying how quality of life varies with a number of objective and subjective measures. These measures range from income levels to job insecurity and satisfaction, to schooling attainment and satisfaction, to measured and self-assessed health, among others.Paradox and Perception greatly improves our understanding of the determinants of well-being in Latin America based on a broad OC quality of lifeOCO concept that challenges some standard assumptions in economics, including those about the relationship between happiness and income.The authorsOCO analysis builds upon a number of new approaches in economics, particularly those related to the study of happiness and finds a number of paradoxes as the regionOCOs respondents evaluate their well-being. These include the paradox of unhappy growth at the macroeconomic level, happy peasants and frustrated achievers at the microlevel, and surprisingly high levels of satisfaction with public services among the regionOCOs poorest.They also have important substantive links with several of the regionOCOs realities, such as high levels of income inequality, volatile macroeconomic performance, and low expectations of public institutions and faith in the capacity of the state to deliver.Identifying these perceptions, paradoxes, and their causes will contribute to the crafting of better public policies, as well as to our understanding of why OC populistOCO politics still pervade in much of the region."

The "quality of life" concept of quality of life is a broad one. It incorporates basic needs but also extends beyond them to include capabilities, the "livability" of the environment, and life appreciation and happiness. Latin America's diversity in culture and levels of development provide a laboratory for studying how quality of life varies with a number of objective and subjective measures. These measures range from income levels to job insecurity and satisfaction, to schooling attainment and satisfaction, to measured and self-assessed health, among others.

Paradox and Perception greatly improves our understanding of the determinants of well-being in Latin America based on a broad "quality of life" concept that challenges some standard assumptions in economics, including those about the relationship between happiness and income.

The authors' analysis builds upon a number of new approaches in economics, particularly those related to the study of happiness and finds a number of paradoxes as the region's respondents evaluate their well-being. These include the paradox of unhappy growth at the macroeconomic level, happy peasants and frustrated achievers at the microlevel, and surprisingly high levels of satisfaction with public services among the region's poorest. They also have important substantive links with several of the region's realities, such as high levels of income inequality, volatile macroeconomic performance, and low expectations of public institutions and faith in the capacity of the state to deliver. Identifying these perceptions, paradoxes, and their causes will contribute to the crafting of better public policies, as well as to our understanding of why "populist" politics still pervade in much of the region.

The "quality of life" concept of quality of life is a broad one. It incorporates basic needs but also extends beyond them to include capabilities, the "livability" of the environment, and life appreciation and happiness. Latin America's diversity in culture and levels of development provide a laboratory for studying how quality of life varies with a number of objective and subjective measures. These measures range from income levels to job insecurity and satisfaction, to schooling attainment and satisfaction, to measured and self-assessed health, among others.

Paradox and Perception greatly improves our understanding of the determinants of well-being in Latin America based on a broad "quality of life" concept that challenges some standard assumptions in economics, including those about the relationship between happiness and income.

The authors' analysis builds upon a number of new approaches in economics, particularly those related to the study of happiness and finds a number of paradoxes as the region's respondents evaluate their well-being. These include the paradox of unhappy growth at the macroeconomic level, happy peasants and frustrated achievers at the microlevel, and surprisingly high levels of satisfaction with public services among the region's poorest.
They also have important substantive links with several of the region's realities, such as high levels of income inequality, volatile macroeconomic performance, and low expectations of public institutions and faith in the capacity of the state to deliver.
Identifying these perceptions, paradoxes, and their causes will contribute to the crafting of better public policies, as well as to our understanding of why "populist" politics still pervade in much of the region.

" The ""quality of life"" concept of quality of life is a broad one. It incorporates basic needs but also extends beyond them to include capabilities, the ""livability"" of the environment, and life appreciation and happiness. Latin America's diversity in culture and levels of development provide a laboratory for studying how quality of life varies with a number of objective and subjective measures. These measures range from income levels to job insecurity and satisfaction, to schooling attainment and satisfaction, to measured and self-assessed health, among others. Paradox and Perception greatly improves our understanding of the determinants of well-being in Latin America based on a broad ""quality of life"" concept that challenges some standard assumptions in economics, including those about the relationship between happiness and income. The authors' analysis builds upon a number of new approaches in economics, particularly those related to the study of happiness and finds a number of paradoxes as the region's respondents evaluate their well-being. These include the paradox of unhappy growth at the macroeconomic level, happy peasants and frustrated achievers at the microlevel, and surprisingly high levels of satisfaction with public services among the region's poorest. They also have important substantive links with several of the region's realities, such as high levels of income inequality, volatile macroeconomic performance, and low expectations of public institutions and faith in the capacity of the state to deliver. Identifying these perceptions, paradoxes, and their causes will contribute to the crafting of better public policies, as well as to our understanding of why ""populist"" politics still pervade in much of the region. " Introduction : how Latin Americans assess their quality of life : insights and puzzles from novel metrics of well-being / Carol Graham and Jere R. Behrman Objective and subjective deprivation / Leonardo Gasparini, Walter Sosa Escudero, Mariana Marchionni, and Sergio Olivieri The conflictive relationship between satisfaction and income / Eduardo Lora and Juan Camilo Chaparro Satisfaction beyond income / Eduardo Lora, Juan Camilo Chaparro and Maria Victoria Rodriguez Vulnerabilities and subjective well-being / Mauricio Cardenas Health perceptions and quality of life in Latin America / Carol Graham and Eduardo Lora Education and life satisfaction : perception or reality? / Mauricio Cardenas, Carolina Mejia, and Vincenzo Di Maro Job insecurity and life satisfaction / Naercio Aquino Menezes-Filho, Raphael Botura Corbi, and Andrea Zaitune Curi. Foreword How Latin Americans assess their quality of life : insights and puzzles from novel metrics of well-being / Carol Graham and Jere R. Behrman Objective and subjective deprivation / Leonardo Gasparini ... [et al.] The conflictive relationship between satisfaction and income / Eduardo Lora and Juan Camilo Chaparro Satisfaction beyond income / Eduardo Lora, Juan Camilo Chaparro, and María Victoria Rodríguez Vulnerabilities and subjective well-being / Mauricio Cárdenas, Carolina Mejía, and Vicenzo di Maro Health perceptions and quality of life in Latin America / Carol Graham and Eduardo Lora Education and life satisfaction : perception or reality? / Mauricio Cárdenas, Carolina Mejía, and Vincenzo di Maro Job insecurity and life satisfaction / Naercio Aquino Menezes-Filho, Raphael Botura Corbi, and Andrea Zaitune Curi. "Improves our understanding of the determinants of well-being in Latin America using a broad "quality-of-life" concept that challenges standard assumptions in economics, including those about the relationship between happiness and income. Builds upon new economic approaches related to the study of happiness, finding some paradoxes as respondents evaluate their well-being"--Provided by publisher.