The relationship between wellbeing dimensions and GDP: a regional empirical study

Abstract

In this paper are considered a large number of indicators for measuring wellbeing at the Romanian counties level. The paper attempts to add the following contributions: a) analyses the shape of the distribution of wellbeing indicators using the kernel density estimation b) uses the factor analysis to identify the wellbeing dimensions that GDP well represents and quantify to what extent. Results show persistent disparities in time, with a few exceptions. It is worth mentioning that, for economic indicators, there is a small group of counties leading ahead of the rest of the country. A part of wellbeing information is captured by GDP, namely the wage, access to utilities, jobs, housing, and health dimensions, but the GDP does not incorporate at least the information related to education, environment, and security.