Abstract

The limits of utilitarian approach have led to the search for different notions of welfare. This paper aims to provide a multi-dimensional measurement for evaluating the social well-being of Italian Regions. It starts with a critical overview of the most promising analytical routes going beyond utilitarian theories: Sen's capabilities approach and Dasgupta's quality of life framework. The measurement of well-being for Italian Regions proposed in this paper is based on the latter. Although it is argued that this approach might be less sophisticated than the one proposed by Sen, it seems in fact to be more appropriate to evaluate alternative economic policies. The construction of this measurement is defined according to the goals of European Union policies and based on a set of indicators that are both constituents and determinants of well-being. Such measurement is used to point out the Borda ranking of Italian Regions well-being. This is followed by a discussion of the correlation between the ranking itself and the indicators chosen. The conclusion offers the main remarks arising from data elaboration.