The Measurement of Quality of Life: Conceptualization comes First, background paper for Inter‐American Development Bank project on Measurement of Quality of Life

This investigation was concerned with providing a rationale for the understanding and measurement of quality of life. The investigation proposes a modified version of Veenhoven’s Four-Qualities-of-Life Framework. Its main purpose is to bring order to the vast literature on measuring quality of life; another purpose is to provide a richer framework to guide public policy in the procurement of a better society. The framework is used to assess quality of life in Latin America; the purpose of this exercise is to illustrate the utility of the framework and to show that importance of conceptualizing what quality of life is before any attempt to measure it is undertaken