Authors: Mihail Diakomihalis, Eleni Kitrinou

Title: Analyzing The Social Welfare Index: The case of the Epirus region, Greece

Abstract

This paper considers the development and analysis of the Social Welfare Index (SWI) at the region of Epirus in Greece, in order to get insights to the factors affecting the different facets of region’s social progress and thus to identify strengths and weaknesses of the area at the level of socioeconomic development.

The paper firstly presents the conceptual framework regarding the architecture of the SWI, which consists of three broad, non-equally weighted, dimensions of social progress, each of which is the sum of four equally weighted components.  The framework provides an outcome-based measure of a region’s or of a country’s wellbeing that is independent of economic indicators. The main advantage of the framework is that it focuses on non-economic dimensions of national or regional performance. The techniques of collecting and analyzing the appropriate data are discussed in detail. The methodology on calculating the SWI of a region is provided, assessing region’s strengths and weaknesses. The comparability analysis of the Social Welfare Index between regions or counties, and/ or across years is also discussed.

Based on the conceptual framework, a case study is then developed for Epirus region in Greece. Data were collected in year 2017 from 277 questioners, of three categories. Specifically, 94 persons were Public Sector Employees, 90 Businessmen and 83 work in the Private Sector. Each of the three groups has been divided into two separate sub-groups depending on the Educational level of the questioners. One sub-category includes persons holding up to High School diploma and the other, people with University degree, Bachelor to PhD.

The Social Welfare Index (SWI) of the region was then developed. The three Criteria of social Welfare (Basic human needs; Foundations of wellbeing; and Personal and social opportunities) and the four Sub-Criteria of each Criterion were estimated. For all the three sub-criteria and all the twelve components, the scores of the SWI were estimated for six types of employees, referring to both educational level and employment contract.

The Epirus region’s estimated mean scores (for each Criterion and for each Sub-Criterion) were firstly comparatively analyzed to the relative international ones. Following a comparative analysis were conducted between the different types of employees, in order to get insights to the role of educational level and the type of business for the quality of life of the employees in the region in question. The results are analyzed in detail, identifying proposals for the social welfare of the region.