Measuring the Impact of Research on Well-being: A Survey of Indicators of Well-being

Andrew Sharpe and Jeremy Smith

No 2005-02, CSLS Research Reports from Centre for the Study of Living Standards

Abstract: The main objective of this report is to conduct a survey and assessment of various indicators used by organizations, both in Canada and abroad, to measure attributes and the well-being of society at the economic, health, environmental, social, and cultural levels. The compilation includes a combination of quantitative and qualitative and objective and subjective indicators or measures. The report is divided into five major parts. The first part provides a brief overview of Canada’s research effort. The second part, by far the longest section, surveys a large number of sets of indicators and composite measures that have been developed to quantify well-being in Canada, in the United States, in OECD countries, and at the international level. The third section develops a preliminary framework for measuring the impact of research on well-being. The fourth section discusses briefly the role of indicators in public policy initiatives to improve the well-being of Canadians. The fifth and final section outlines directions for further work. The report concludes that it is entirely feasible to assess the impact of research investments in Canada on various dimensions of well-being. But it is important to specify what particular research investments and what dimensions of well-being are of interest given the many types of research investments and well-being dimensions as well as the complex interrelationships between research and well-being.

Keywords: well-being indicators; research impact; composite measures; quality of life; GDP alternatives; Canada; OECD (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2005-02
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-cbe, nep-env and nep-ino
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (4)

Downloads: (external link)
https://csls.ca/research/measuring-the-impact-of-r ... ators-of-well-being/ (text/html)
https://csls.ca/wp-content/uploads/2026/07/csls2005-02-1.pdf (application/pdf)

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:sls:resrep:0502

Ordering information: This working paper can be ordered from
http://www.csls.ca

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in CSLS Research Reports from Centre for the Study of Living Standards 170 Laurier Ave. W, Suite 604, Ottawa, ON K1P 5V5. Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by CSLS ().