Quality-of-Life Beyond Material Conditions: Measuring Subjective Well-being and Behavioral Outcomes
Instructors:
Dr. Fahim Nawaz & Dr. Khadija Shams
Workshop Description:
Quality-of-life research has long demonstrated that material living conditions alone, such as income, employment, or economic growth, do not fully explain how individuals evaluate their lives. Classical contributions in economics and well-being studies have shown that increases in income or GDP do not translate mechanically into higher life satisfaction, giving rise to enduring debates on the limits of material progress (Easterlin, 1974; Deaton, 2008). As a result, contemporary quality-of-life research increasingly emphasizes the role of non-material and relational dimensions of well-being. This workshop is designed to acquaint the participants with a distinct framework to understand quality of life as a concept underlying two analytically differing yet interrelated aspects/components.
The first of these aspects is termed the ‘objective life conditions’, which includes ‘apparent’ factors such as income, socioeconomic inequality, job security, health, educational attainment, and political inclusion, to name a few. These apparent or objective variables are dominantly used in research involving social phenomena (OECD, 2011; Diener et al., 2018). The second aspect of quality of life is termed the ‘subjective or relational conditions’, comprising factors such as one’s degree of religiosity, social capital, the strength of family ties, and the availability as well as degree of social support. Factors like these are argued to shape one’s sense of self, belonging, and meaning (Putnam, 2000; Helliwell & Putnam, 2004; Diener & Seligman, 2002). The workshop, therefore, draws on the scholarly literature on quality of life, subjective well-being research, and the capability approach to development (Sen, 1999; Nussbaum, 2011) to argue that the subjective or relational factors exert a considerable influence on one’s perception and experience of inequality or deprivation. Furthermore, the subjective factors could also moderate and amplify the impact of unfavorable objective factors/conditions, thereby driving individuals towards extreme behavioral outcomes such as political mobilization and violence (Helliwell et al., 2014).
The workshop consists of two parts or components. The first part will draw on the existing scholarly literature to introduce and differentiate between the objective/apparent and subjective/relational aspects of quality of life. This part will specifically focus on defining, measuring, and relating these distinct yet interrelated concepts to quality of life. The second part of the workshop will be a hands-on exercise that will comprise designing a questionnaire for measuring or quantifying the subjective or relational aspects underlying quality of life, such as the degree of one’s religiosity, the strength of family ties, and social capital, for instance.
Participants will further learn to clean the primary data and combine the survey responses for constructing composite indices. Finally, using STATA (statistical software), the participants will also learn to link the subjective and objective variables pertaining to quality of life with behavioral outcomes through empirical modeling. We believe the workshop will be beneficial for doctoral students, postdoctoral scholars, as well as the early career researchers interested in the theoretical and applied aspects of quality of life.
It is pertinent to mention that the workshop is not about discovering new dimensions of quality of life. Instead, it aims to equip the participants with empirical skills to measure subjective well-being and analyze how it can potentially translate into cognitive and behavioral outcomes such as polarization and conflict.
Time Allotment:
The total duration of the workshop will be four hours, allocated as follows:
Hour 01: Theory (theoretical underpinnings of the subjective/objective aspects of the quality of life and their relationship with behavioral outcomes)
Hour 02: Designing a questionnaire and administering a short survey among the workshop participants
Hour 03 and 04: Data entry, data cleaning, and data analysis using STATA to quantify the subjective aspects of quality of life and linking these with behavioral outcomes using empirical modeling
Facilitator Bio and Photo
The workshop will be jointly conducted by Dr. Fahim Nawaz (Mr.) and Dr. Khadija Shams (Miss.). In the first hour, Dr. Khadija Shams will cover the theory part. In the second hour, both facilitators will jointly help design the questionnaire and use it to collect primary data from the participants. In the last two hours, Dr. Fahim Nawaz will conduct the applied part of the workshop involving data entry, data cleaning, and data analysis for empirical modeling using STATA. The biographies and photos of both facilitators are as follows:
BIOGRAPHY – DR. FAHIM NAWAZ
Dr. Fahim Nawaz is an applied economist. He completed a Ph.D. in Economics at the Technical University Dresden, Germany, in November 2022. For his Ph.D., he wrote a cumulative doctoral dissertation titled “Three Essays on the Determinants of Radicalization – A Case of North-Western Pakistan’, in which he empirically assessed the drivers of religious radicalization in Pakistan’s northwestern province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, bordering Afghanistan. This was accomplished using survey data collected from over 600 respondents in all 34 districts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. His doctoral research has been published in peer-reviewed journals like Cogent Social Sciences. Dr. Fahim Nawaz currently works as a Lecturer at the Department of Economics,
University of Peshawar in Pakistan. He teaches various courses at the undergraduate and graduate levels. Some of the courses that he has taught include Development Economics, Applied Econometrics, Statistical Packages, Microeconomics, and Public Finance. Additionally, he actively supervises master's and Ph.D. students. From his joining the Department of Economics in January 2023 to the present day, 09 students enrolled in the Master of Philosophy (M.Phil.) program in Economics successfully completed their research under his supervision. An additional 05 M.Phil. and 04 Ph.D. students working under his supervision are close to completing their research. Apart from teaching and research, Dr. Fahim Nawaz is also passionate about creating literacy among the masses at large regarding contemporary economic issues and events. To achieve this goal, he co-created the Development Insights Lab (DIL) at the University of Peshawar. DIL is a think-tank that uses data to write reports on economic issues of public interest in simple to understand lay-man language. This effort is further complemented by his active engagement with local, national, and international media platforms, opining on contemporary economic, social, and development issues pertaining to Pakistan and Afghanistan. Dr. Fahim Nawaz is also currently working as an Advisor to the Minister for Higher Education in the Government of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan. This position allows him to advise the Provincial Government on reforming the higher education system in response to the evolving national and global changes in knowledge needs and labor market dynamics.
BIOGRAPHY – DR. KHADIJA SHAMS
Khadija Shams studied PhD in Economics at the University of Glasgow, UK; and was employed by the Scottish Government in the Equality Statistics Team of the Communities Analytical Services Division. She is presently working as an Associate Professor in Economics at Shaheed Benazir Bhutto Women University, Peshawar, Pakistan. Her area of interest includes: Economics of Inequality and Deprivation; Economics of Happiness and Development Studies.
