Fair and sustainable well-being indicators for European countries: Comparing different synthesizing approaches

The aim of this paper is to define a system to measure well-being in the European countries by using synthetic indicators. In this perspective, we adopted the framework and the methodology of the Italian project BES (Sustainable and Equitable Well-being for Italy). The project, established by the Italian Institute of Statistics and the Council of Economics and Labour, is widely considered one of the most advanced among the several projects aimed at providing the countries with measures able to support policy decision in the beyond GDP perspective. The project (launched in 2010) is known with the acronym BES (Benessere Equo e Sostenibile, Fair and Sustainable Wellbeing) and has been developed by Italian National Institute of Statistics (ISTAT) with the partnership of the National Council for Economics and Labour (CNEL) by involving also many scholars from Academia and representatives from the civil society. The project developed a system of indicators able to describe the national well-being, beyond the merely economic measures which are summarized by GDP. We decided to apply to the European countries this theoretical framework, the system of indicators and the methodology using by ISTAT for measuring the wellbeing in Italy. In applying the BES framework, we use the data provided by Eurostat and regarding the 28 member states of the European Union. First, we identify basic indicators belonging to the twelve domains of Sustainable and Equitable Well-Being. Then we construct one synthetic indicator for each domain, by following the hierarchical design. For the synthesis of the indicators, we apply and compare two different methods, the first one is the Adjusted Mazziotta Pareto Index (Ampi), an aggregative approach, while the second one is based on the Partial Order Set Theory which provide non-aggregative synthetic indicators.