Ranking of Developing Countries based on the Well being Index

اقتصاد و توسعه منطقه ای

Article 2, Volume 21, Issue 7, January 2015   

Document Type: Research article

DOI: 10.22067/erd.v21i7.17399

Authors

homayoun shirazi^* ; karim Azarbaiejani; mir hadi hoseini; sara mardiha

Abstract

Well being as a multidimensional concept has been noticed by many economists and politicians in recent years. In most studies, only the combination of non-economic indicators have been used in order to measure well being while constructing the indicator that includes all geographic, economic and human aspects can help us to study the countries development procedure. The aim of this study is constructing a well being indicator for all developing countries with regarding aforementioned aspects.
In this study we attempt to construct a composite indicator based on 8 sub indexes by using factor-analysis and objective method. This indicator has been calculated annually for 89 developing countries for the period 2000-2008.
Based on the results, African countries have the lowest well being score among selected developing countries. Also the results show an improvement of well being indicator in Turkey, China and Brazil in recent years. In addition, this indicator had been increasingly for Iran during aforesaid period but between the four-year periods 2005-2008, the rate of this growth process has been decreased.

Keywords

well being; quality of life; index constructing; Factor analysis