Inequality, Poverty and Well-being
Mark McGillivray conducts a very useful and sobering econometric exercise that allows him to compute the predictive value of a whole host of well-being indicators for the part of (composite) well-being not explained by per capita income...' —Arjan Verschoor, Journal of Development Studies
- Publisher:
- Palgrave Macmillan
- Series:
- Studies in Development Economics and Policy
- Title:
- Inequality, Poverty and Well-being
- Authors:
- Edited by Mark McGillivray
- Publication date:
- August 2006
- ISBN Printed:
- 1403987521
- ISBN 13 Print:
- 9781403987525
- Copyright holder:
- © UNU-WIDER
- Copyright year:
- 2006
- Keywords:
- life expectancy, inequality, poverty, well-being, empirical measures
- JEL:
- A13, I32, D63
- Project:
- Social Development Indicators - Measuring Human Well-being
- Format:
- hardback book
- ‘The UNU-WIDER volumes have emerged at a time when work on well-being is expanding rapidly across the social sciences in response to changes in global conditions, new research priorities, more sophisticated concepts and methods, and improved data resources. The books in question are remarkable not just for tackling difficult conceptual and methodological issues …, but for their content, scope and coverage – which touches upon most, if not all, of the central topics and emerging issues in well-being research. … [They] bring together a diverse collection of papers on poverty, inequality and well-being in developing countries. They tackle a wide range of conceptual, methodological and technical issues that are likely to be of interest to scholars, policy-makers and practitioners alike. More importantly perhaps, they also draw out key policy conclusions and help identify promising directions for future research. Among other things they recognize that poverty and well-being are inherently multidimensional, highlight the need for further conceptual and empirical work to combine quantitative and qualitative indicators of well-being, call for the availability and quality of existing data for measuring well-being to be improved, show that some countries are better at converting income into broader well-being achievements than others, and stress the importance of human security for realizing well-being. While these volumes are skewed towards measurement, they successfully incorporate key chapters on conceptual and foundational issues while cashing in on UNU-WIDER’s comparative advantage in quantitative economics and practical research. As such, these books are highly recommended and likely to become leading works of reference.’ – David A. Clark, Southern Africa Labour and Development Research Unit, University of Cape Town, South Africa, Journal of Human Development vol. 9, no. 1 March 2008