Composite Index of Economic Well Being and its Measurement for Selected Developing Countries

Today in economic studies, the composite index is often used for measuring economic welfare. One of the current and most comprehensive composite index for measuring level of economic well being is the one introduced by osberg (IEWB) and later have developed by the Centre for the Study of Living Standards (CSLS). In this index, among the different economic variables that affect economic welfare, the most importance is given to the components related to four dimensions, namely consumption, wealth, income distribution and economic security. So in this study the IEWB as a comprehensive index of economic welfare has been chosen. This paper, for the first time, tries to introduce IEWB and applies it to the data for selected developing countries during the 2002 to 2007 period and results have been analyzed. The findings of this study indicate that during the period under consideration on average Morocco has the highest value of the IEWB index, and Bangladesh has the lowest one. In terms of rate of growth, Turkey has the highest and Bangladesh has the lowest rate of growth. Iran did not have a good position and ranked 8 among the countries under consideration.