Small area estimates of Subjective Wellbeing: Spatial Microsimulation on the Australian Unity Wellbeing Index Survey

Itismita Mohanty (), Robert Tanton (), Yogi Vidyattama, Marcia Keegan () and Robert Cummins ()
Additional contact information
Marcia Keegan: NATSEM, University of Canberra
Robert Cummins: Deakin University

No 13/23, NATSEM Working Paper Series from University of Canberra, National Centre for Social and Economic Modelling

Abstract: Subjective wellbeing is an indicator of how satisfied a person is with their life. It is becoming accepted as an indicator of happiness and overall wellbeing. This paper uses spatial microsimulation methods to estimate small area subjective wellbeing (SWB) in Australia. The procedure uses the Australian Unity Wellbeing Index survey and the 2011 Census data to derive small area estimates of SWB. Validation of the results shows that high and normal levels of SWB compare well to another source of SWB for small areas in the Murray Darling Basin, but levels of low SWB are not predicted as well, possibly due to the effect of local factors not available for the modelling on reducing SWB. Aggregate estimates compare well to HILDA estimates of SWB at a State level. These estimates are now available from the Australian Urban Research Infrastructure Network (AURIN) at the University of Melbourne..

Keywords: Wellbeing; Regional welfare; Spatial Microsimulation (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: C63 I31 R13 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 35 pages
Date: 2013-12
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-geo, nep-hap and nep-ure
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Published as a NATSEM Working Paper series

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.natsem.canberra.edu.au/files/download?id=1175 (application/pdf)
Our link check indicates that this URL is bad, the error code is: 500 Can't connect to www.natsem.canberra.edu.au:80 (A connection attempt failed because the connected party did not properly respond after a period of time, or established connection failed because connected host has failed to respond.)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:cba:wpaper:wp1123

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in NATSEM Working Paper Series from University of Canberra, National Centre for Social and Economic Modelling Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Peter Trueman ( this e-mail address is bad, please contact ).