Measuring well-being for public policy: a freedom-based approach

This article questions the adequateness of conventional approaches to Quality of Life (QL) and aims to contribute to the on-going debate around revision, integration or improvement of the metrics of well-being as traditionally used in the statistic indicators literature. As an alternative, this study substantiates its main assumptions on Amartya Sen's Capability Approach (CA). The main hypothesis is that welfare analyses which are based on pure monetary measurements or which neglect the importance of the intrinsic value of freedom (and focus only on its instrumental effects) impede the achievement of adequate pictures of people's real living conditions in contemporary complex societies and thus, prejudice the design of public policy. This hypothesis is verified and tested both by a theoretical discussion and by an empirical analysis using OECD statistical data. What the findings suggest is the great importance of enhancing freedom for the achievement of better individual and societal outcomes.