3.2 Living Standards and its Indicators - Non-Material SOL Flashcards
Define non-material SOL.
Non-material standard of living refers to the qualitative aspects of life. It is a broad based measure of welfare and can be in terms of access to good quality healthcare, education, safety, freedom, little interference or tolerable and sustainable level of stress, displacement, depletion of non-renewable resources and pollution, among many other aspects.
How does real GDP per capita act an an indicator of the non-material SOL?
Real GDP per capita may function as an indirect proxy for non-material welfare as a rise in average income levels allow consumers to enjoy more and better quality goods (such as quality healthcare/education and enjoying more leisure activities) enhancing their non-material welfare.
However, GDP growth may be at tension with no-material welfare through forms of environmental pollution or less leisure welfare.
What are various aspects of non-material SOL and what are their related indicators?
- Healthcare: Life expectancy rates, infant mortality rates
- Education: Literacy rates, mean years of schooling, highest qualification attained by the population
- Pollution: Air quality index (PSI, PM2.5 concentration)
- Stress level: Job satisfaction surveys, number of hours worked per week
- Security: Crime rates, corruption perception index
What are the limitations of welfare indicators? What needs to be done to minimise these limitations?
- Real GDP per capita has both positive or negative relationships with various aspects of non-material welfare
- Qualitative welfare indicators are subjective as welfare cannot be quantified, the proxies used to gauge the welfare are limited and expensive to collect
- Welfare indicators need to be reviewed and refined to isolate the effect that they wish to analyse
- Various indicator should be used to measure the same aspect of non-material SOL
