Publication type
Journal Article
Authors
Publication date
June 1, 2011
Summary:
There is an ambiguity in Amartya Sen’s capability approach as
to what constitutes an individual’s resources, conversion factors and
valuable functionings. What we here call the “circularity problem”
points to the fact that all three concepts seem to be mutually
endogenous and interdependent. To econometrically account for this
entanglement we suggest a panel vector autoregression approach. We
analyze the intertemporal interplay of the above factors over a time
horizon of 15 years using the BHPS data set for Great Britain, measuring
individual well-being in functionings space with a set of basic
functionings, comprising “being happy”, “being healthy”, “being
nourished”, “moving about freely”, “being well-sheltered” and “having
satisfying social relations”. We find that there are indeed functionings
that are resources for many other functionings (viz. “being happy”)
while other functionings (“being well-sheltered” and “having satisfying
social relations”) are by and large independent, thus shedding light on a
facet of the capability approach that has been neglected so far.
Published in
Social Indicators Research
Volume and page numbers
Volume: 103 , p.327 -355
DOI
http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s11205-010-9714-4
ISSN
3038300
Subjects
Notes
not held in Res Lib - bibliographic reference only
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