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Many European countries are facing the challenge of increasing the effective retirement age. Increasing the effective retirement age also requires that older employees are voluntarily willing to continue working. A worker who is willing to retire but is not allowed to retire might experience a negative impact on his or her well-being. This articles studies the determinants of the willingness to retire: the job, health, and financial situation of the older worker, and other socio-demographic characteristics. To do this, the micro data of the Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe are used, which contains a binary question about willingness to retire. Based on the random effects logit estimator, we find that the job situation of the worker and the retirement of the partner are important drivers of the willingness to retire. Specifically, those willing to retire are more frequently employed in jobs that are mentally and physically demanding. They also feel less appreciated by the management or their colleagues and report to have fewer opportunities to get promotion. The willingness to retire is higher if the older worker has a retired partner. In the countries with the lowest rates of willingness to retire, the workers have better working conditions and are more easily able to make ends meet. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the importance of five dimensions (health, income, education, family life, and social life) to the well-being of the Flemish society. The importance of these dimensions is determined by the opinions of the sampled individuals. Using point allocation and direct rating to derive these opinions, we aim to determine which dimensions are considered most important to well-being and the individual heterogeneities that drive this importance. We also aim to study the relationship between the outcome on a dimension (i.e. the self-reported existing situation) and its importance. Summary statistics show that, on average, health and family life are the two most crucial aspects of well-being. Results of linear regressions reveal that older individuals regard health, education, and social life to be crucial. Individuals who have a high trust in people and/or are highly educated regard income as a less crucial dimension. Our results also show that contrary to social life, family life matters more to respondents who have kids and/or a partner. Education, social and family life outcomes demonstrate a weak, positive correlation with their respective importance. Our findings imply that enhancing health, supporting family life, and promoting a vibrant social life for the elderly help increase well-being in Flanders. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses equivalent income, a proposed method for measuring well-being. Topics discussed center on the impact of preference on equivalent income including aggregating over well-being dimensions and equivalent income, calculation of equivalent income based on preferences taken from common subjective well-being questions, and the influence of preference differences on well-being.

The individual well-being of flood disaster victims is examined making use of two concepts: life satisfaction and perceived capabilities in life. These concepts are compared in two samples: a representative sample of Flemish respondents and a specific sample of people that have been the victim of a pluvial flood. Well-being as life satisfaction is found not to be related to past or expected future flooding, whereas well-being as capabilities in life is negatively related to both past and expected future flooding. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There is a widespread consensus that well-being is a multidimensional notion. To quantify multidimensional well-being, information on the relative weights of the different dimensions is essential. There is, however, considerable disagreement in the literature on the most appropriate weighting scheme to use. Making use of a recent data set for Flanders, we calculate and compare various common weighting schemes, which are uniformly applied to all individuals. We find that a policymaker would identify different groups of individuals as being worst off depending on the scheme that is chosen. In order to compare and evaluate the weighting schemes, we simulate the support each scheme would get in a voting procedure. Weighting schemes that obtain higher support reflect better the priorities of the respondents and suffer less from the problem of paternalism that is inherent to any common weighting scheme. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Most of the applied research on capabilities and well-being makes use of quantitative data and research techniques. This paper examines the possibilities of qualitative data gathering to explore the theoretical richness (and complexity) of the capabilities framework. With this objective, the capabilities theory is translated into a framework that enables focus group discussions on well-being. It turns out to be surprisingly easy to discus issues related to the theory of capabilities, as the concepts are recognizable for the focus participants. Being able to choose and making trade offs is related to the concepts of well-being of the participants. Provided one has ‘the basic capability to cope with capabilities’, possibilities and choices increases well-being. These findings show that the capability framework can be fruitfully used for applied research on well-being and that qualitative data gathering creates opportunities that are complementary to quantitative techniques. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

There is growing scientific evidence that the measurement of wellbeing or quality of life requires additional indicators, going beyond income (or resource based indicators in general) or happiness (or utilitarian indicators). To explore the gap between theoretical conceptions and the perceptions and opinions of the population, we used a focus group methodology. The objective was to get a description of the concept of well-being and to find out which aspects have an influence on individual well-being and why. Since well-being is not a static concept, we analyzed the results of the focus discussions in a dynamic context making use of the 'capabilities' approach of Amartya Sen. The participants define quality of life, happiness and well-being. This scheme is applied to the relationship between 'politics' and well-being. The current political system, as well as the role of policy in helping citizens to achieve wellbeing, are examined. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]