Quality of life index : measure of policy success?

Abstract

The process of economic development can be seen as a process of expanding the capabilities of people. This process should include the notion of human development by means of capacity building and empowering the decisionmakers. Growth-enhancing policies should therefore be implemented and evaluated in terms of policy success. This paper has a contribution to make in terms of the existing literature on providing an economic measure of policy success by means of a quality of life index. Agents of government sometimes have limited authority and capacity and need guidelines to strengthen their competence to limit the potential dangers of resource wastage or misallocation. The decisions made by the authorities will inevitably affect the inhabitants of a specific area, the social order, environmental issues and economic activities. Authorities should be empowered to measure quality of life in order to evaluate their own policy outcomes. The purpose is to develop a single index that may be used as an instrument to measure quality of life over time. The main objective would be to develop a quality of life index which is comprehensive, yet simple to use and apply.