A Review of Conceptual Foundations write by Peter Kaufamann, Sigrid Stangl, Katarzyna Zawalińska, Jerzy Michalek Presented by Mariana Gálová

 Measuring quality of life is an important element by development of regions  It helps to raise living standart of inhabitant and shows some deficieces which shoud be improve  there are some problems exist with measuring of quality  The base problem is use an approach, which is the most suitable  highlighting advantages and disadvantages of individual approaches in the European Union

 Q uality of life – important element in the development of regions, and many policies aim to improve the quality of life of the inhabitants.  Rural indicators – are used by measuring of quality of life in rural regions, often linked with the social, economic and enviroment  Policy monitoring – quality of life respond to policy goal in rural region, directly influece development of specific area

 Based on the notion of utility  Focus rational individuals on maximise their utility through an optimal combination of goods bought from their income  Problems by trying applied this theory from individual to the societal level ( aggregation must be taken as one person)  As an indicator is used Index of economic well-being (similar to GDP)  IEWB differentiate between welfare for current and future generation

 IEWB has four basic domains, which create it: - effective per capita consumption flows ( marketed services and goods like GDP but add also externalities) _ net societal accumulation of stock of productive resources - sustainability domain ( tangible, human capital, investment ) - income distribution ( intensity of powerty and inequality of income) - economic of security ( financial support for illness, unemployment, family break- up...)  may lead to misleading conclusion, ´cause of data availability

 Uses net national production (NNP)  Count with manufactured (building, machinery), human (skills, health) and natural capital (minerals, water)  Problems - by accounting prices over time they are not tenable and also institutions are not included  Count with current situation and according to this makes prediction for future (negative investment in Afrika 2004)

 Determinants of life satisfaction : -personality factors ( optimism, self-esteem) -socio-demographic factors (status,gender) -micro and macroeconomic factors (employment, living conditions....)  In generall satisfaction of people increase with the growth of incomes ( in the way of representant )  Most important are personality factors, which predetermined ability of person to achieve target and face up to inequality (feeling)

 Ill-being  Base on fact that potential loses influence people more than potencial gains  Most common family solve problems as deprivation, disadvantage, inequal income, powerty....  It´s a concept how to „not being unhappy“  People influence the most: income and financial,employment, educational, health and housing disadvantage

 Measuring absolute QoL in regions  The decision of households to migrate is influenced by living standart  Base on probability better life in other place, after takin into account all opportunity costs associated with the move  Migration rate in specific region is compar to migration rate in whole country  Percetage is indicator of quality of life in area

 Respect not only economy, but also social, political and cultural dimension  How to integrate non-market goods between individuals  Distinguishes between functionings (achievements) and capabilities (opportunity to choose)  Capabilities are more relevant, ´cause there are another factors like policy system, low..  Missing measure of inequality,social and enviromental area

 Focus on the natur ( base for social and economic being)  MILLENIUM ECOSYSTEM ASSESMENT- measurement is problematic, relationship between ecosystem and human well-being isn´t linear Differentiate between direct(factories) and indirect(globalisation) influence Comprehensive measure of ecosystem between countries (quality of water, air, land, atmosphere)

 Involving many indicatorson different scales  68 indicators set by UK government  Direct link between national policy and local needs  44 indicators are calculated from local area and involved nature resorces  20 indicators give an overwiew of development specific country  4 indicators are individual

 Conceptual basic for QoL measurement was improved in recent years, but is still experimental  Measuring require a hybrid approach  Outcome measures are mostly superior to the input measures  Only with involving natural resources we are able to get optimal measurement of long- term social welfare  We shoud use informations from every area and make a balanced result