Well-being as an imperative of Ukraine’s social development

Economic Annals-ХХI: Volume 156, Issue 1-2, Pages: 31-36

Citation information:
Hlushchenko, O. (2016). Well-being as an imperative of Ukraine’s social development. Economic Annals-XXI, 156(1-2), 31-36. doi: https://doi.org/10.21003/ea.V156-0007

Olha Hlushchenko
PhD (Economics),
Associate Professor,
Vasyl Karazin Kharkiv National University
4 Svobody Sq., Kharkiv, 61022, Ukraine
ovglushchenko73@gmail.com

Well-being as an imperative of Ukraine’s social development

Abstract. Introduction. The need for search for new scientific approaches to understanding social progress in modern science took shape in the «economics of happiness» and measuring sustainable development beyond GDP. Purpose. To justify the need for treating well-being as an imperative of social development of Ukraine. Results. The state of the social development of Ukraine has been considered through the prism of indicators beyond GDP and, by the results of clustering with Kohonen’s self-organising maps (SOM). There here have been distinguished five clusters by the position of the rating change: «Catastrophic Decline», «Sharp Drop», «Moderate Drop», «Almost Unchanged» and «High Growth». Ukraine is included in the «Almost Unchanged» cluster. Based on the Prosperity Index for 2015, the sub-indices of the economy and public administration of Ukraine are found to be the lowest of all the countries included in the calculation of the index. In terms of the Prosperity Index, a general profile of Ukraine as a country with poor economy, public administration, health and freedom of the individual and a satisfactory level of entrepreneurship and opportunity, education, safety, security and social capital has been defined. The author’s definition of well-being as an opportunity to meet human and community needs which contribute to their physical, spiritual, social and physical development harmonised with ethical standards and the need to preserve the environment has been offered. Conclusions. Well-being understood as a comprehensive depoliticised concept will allow for unification of the Ukrainian society in the conditions of conflict and controversy and ensure the transition to a sustainable improvement of the quality of life in the country.

Keywords: Well-being; Economics of Happiness; Beyond GDP; Human Development Index; Prosperity Index; Integrated Index of Regional Human Development

JEL Classіfіcatіon: D60; E01; I31; O11

DOI: https://doi.org/10.21003/ea.V156-0007

References

1. Sen, A. (1999). Development as Freedom. New York: Oxford University Press.
2. Sen, A., & Dreze, J. (1998). India, economic development and social opportunity. New York: Clarendon Press, Oxford University Press.
3. Stiglitz, J. Е., & Bruce, C. (2014). The Price of Inequality: How Today’s Divided Society Endangers Our Future. Greenwald: Columbia University Press.
4. Stiglitz, J. Е. (2015). The Great Divide: Unequal Societies and What We Can Do About Them. New York: W. W. Norton & Company, Inc.
5. Ocampo, J. A., & Bertola, L. (2012). The Economic Development of Latin America Since Independence (Initiative for Policy Dialogue). Oxford: OUP.
6. Sachs, D. J. (2005). The End of Poverty: Economic Possibilities for Our Time. New York: The Penguin Press.
7. Easterly, W. (2001). The Elusive Quest for Growth. Economists Adventures and Misadventures in the Tropics. Cambridge: MIT Press.
8. Belorus, O. H. (2014). World structural crisis and transformations of the global financial system. Ekonomicnij Casopis-XXI (Economic Annals-XXI), 7-8(1), 4-7.
   Retrieved from https://ea21journal.world/index.php/ea-v142-01/ (in Russ.)
9. Artyomova, T. I., Gricenko, A. A., Krichevskaya, T. A., Lipov, V. V., & Malahova, N. B. (2013). Hierarchy and networks in the institutional architectonics of economic systems. Kyiv: Institute for economics and forecasting (in Russ.).
10. Soskin, O. I. (2013). Role of state regulation in formation of modern economic model: changing imperative in the conditions of chaos. Ekonomicnij Casopis-XXI (Economic Annals-XXI), 1-2(1), 3-7.
    Retrieved from https://ea21journal.world/index.php/ea-v125-01/ (in Ukr.)
11. Sharov, O. M. (2013). The crisis of the world economicsystem paradigm (monetary aspects). Ekonomicnij Casopis-XXI (Economic Annals-XXI), 1-2(1), 49-52.
    Retrieved from https://ea21journal.world/index.php/ea-v125-13/ (in Ukr.)
12. Bergh, van den, J., & Antal, M. (2014, March). Evaluating Alternatives to GDP as Measures of Social Welfare/Progress. Working Paper, 56, 1-19.
13. Landefeld, S. J., & Villones, S. M. (2009, October). GDP and Beyond: Measuring Economic Progress and Sustainability. Washington: Bureau of Economic Analysis.
14. Costanza, R. B., Hart, M., Posner, S., & Talberth, J. (2009, January) GDP: The Need for New Measures of Progress. The Pardee Papers, 4, 1-49.
15. Kubiszewski, I., Costanza, R., Franco, C., Lawn, P., Talberth, J., Jackson, T., & Aylmer, C. (2013). Beyond GDP: Measuring and achieving global genuine progress. Ecological Economics, 93, 57-68.
16. Bobuh, I. (2015). Sustainable development: essence principles and performance measurement. Ekonomichna teoriia (Economic theory), 3, 95-118 (in Ukr.).
17. Batistova, O. I. (2013). Social and cultural factors of current global and national economic development. In G. V. Zadorozhniy, O. I. Davydov (Eds.). Spiritual and cultural factors of social and cultural dynamics. Kharkiv: Tochka (in Ukr.).
18. Clark, H. (2012, June). Beyond GDP – Measuring the Future We Want.
    Retrieved from http://www.undp.org/content/undp/en/home/presscenter/speeches/2012/06/20/helen-clark-beyond-gdp-measuring-the-future-we-want
19. United Nations (2012, January). Report of the United Nations Secretary-General’s High-Level Panel on Global Sustainability. New York: United Nations.
20. Mahbubul, H. (1995). Reflections on Human Development. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
21. United Nations Development Program (2013). Human Development Reports.
    Retrieved from http://hdr.undp.org
22. United Nations Development Program (2014). Human Development Reports: Sustaining Human Progress: Reducing Vulnerabilities and Building Resilience.
    Retrieved from http://hdr.undp.org
23. United Nations Development Program (2015). Human Development Reports.
    Retrieved from http://hdr.undp.org
24. United Nations Development Program (2015). Millennium Development Goals.
    Retrieved from http://www.ua.undp.org/content/ukraine/uk/home/mdgoverview
25. United Nations Development Program (2015). Millennium Development Goals Ukraine 2014.
    Retrieved from http://www.ua.undp.org/content/dam/ukraine/docs/
    2014%20MDGs%20Ukraine%20Report%20ukr.pdf
26. United Nations Development Program (2015). Millennium Development Goals Ukraine 2015.
    Retrieved from http://www.ua.undp.org/content/dam/ukraine/docs/
    2015%20MDGs%20Ukraine%20infographics%20ukr.pdf
27. Legatum Institute (2015). The Legatum Prosperity Index.
    Retrieved from http://www.prosperity.com/#!/country/UKR
28. Ehrhard, L. (1991). Welfare for all. Moscow: Nachala-Press (in Russ.).
29. Law and Regulations (2015). On methodological principles of measuring human development for the regions of Ukraine: Decision of the Board of the State Committee of Statistics of Ukraine, the Presidium of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine dated of 14 Mar. 2001 № 76/182.
    Retrieved from http://www.zakon-i-normativ.info/index.php/component/lica/?view=text&base=1&id=516410&menu=109675 (in Ukr.)
30. Ptoukha Institute for Demography and Social Studies of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine (2015). Integral index of human development in the regions of Ukraine.
    Retrieved from http://www.idss.org.ua/ukr_index.html
31. Soskin, O. I. (2014). National capitalism the economic model for Ukraine. Kyiv: ICT (in Ukr.).
32. Khmelkov, A. V. (2014). Institutional infrastructure ensuring stability of public finances: problem statement. Vestnik Harkovskogo natsionalnogo universiteta imeni V. N. Karazina (Herald of V. N. Karazin Kharkov National University), 1118, 84-90 (in Russ.).

Received 27.01.2016