Measuring and Strengthening Well-being at Regional Level in OECD Countries: Application of the QCA Method

摘要

Many factors that influence people's well-being come into play at regional and local level. Therefore, understanding people's levels of well-being at regional level and what determines it where they live is a crucial part of gearing public policies toward better achieving society's objectives. Against this background, this study aims to measure the regions of OECD member countries in terms of regional well-being, using OECD statistics, to discover the configurations of independent policy variables affecting high levels of regional well-being, and to suggest policies for strengthening regions with low levels of regional well-being. In doing this, this study employs the QCA method, which has rarely been used in this academic field. The study results show that there are two sufficient conditions that affect high regional well-being levels. One is the configuration in which Austria and the Netherlands are included, which is formed of a high government expenditure level, a low Gini coefficient, a high national competitiveness level, a low local decentralization level, and a high social cohesion level. Another configuration has a low government expenditure level, a high Gini coefficient, a high national competitiveness level, a low local decentralization level, and a high social cohesion level. New Zealand belongs to this category.