What Defines Quality of Life? The Gap Between Public Policies and Locally Defined Indicators Among Residents

Springer Science+Business Media B.V. 2012 Abstract Improving quality of life (QoL) is one of the main goals of many public policies. A useful tool to measure QoL needs to get a good balance between indicators guided by theories (top-down approach) and indicators defined by local people (bottom-up approach). However, QoL measurement tools often neglect to include elements that define the standard of living at local level. In this paper, we analyse the correspondence between human development index, as an indicator adopted by governments to assess QoL, and the F. Zorondo-Rodrı́guez (&) E. Gómez-Baggethun P. Ariza-Montobbi