A multidimensional approach to resilience

This thesis aims to investigate the resilience of European countries on the occasion of the very recent economic crisis measured in terms of multidimensional wellbeing measures, including the Better Life Index (BLI) by OECD. In so doing, this work departs from common practice using income and employment. The analysis is augmented with the effects of expenditures, as measured by the IMF's Fiscal Decentralization dataset. The empirical analysis is based on a panel of 22 European countries, over the period 2004-2017, adopting pooling regression (POLS) approach and Fixed Effect (FE) and Random Effect(RE) approach. The analysis shows that the decentralization measure can mitigate the shock and that both during the shock and the recovery, the multidimensional approach for the determination of wellbeing has been impacted by purely economic elements. The empirical evidence shows also that the link between the expenditure by sector and related BLI categories is rather case-specific; During the financial distress the elements that concur to the determination of “resilience” are, both the wealth and work conditions of the households and the relevance of the European institutions. Whereas, the response to the recessionary shock shows that the personal security and the evolution of purely economy elements to adverse events, in this case, the economic recessions, contribute to the achievement of the “growth path”.