Article

 

COMPARISONS OF ASPECTS OF LIFE IN THE CEECs AND THE FSU 
 
by
 
Dimitrios Giannias, University of Crete
Georgios Giannias, European Center for Economic and Technical Studies (EKOM)
 
JEL classification : O120, R580, O180
 
Abstract
Quality of life indices get special attention because of their all inclusive nature which focuses on location specific characteristics. An analysis of consumer’s decision making indicates that the weights used for the regional amenities considered and included in the index should not vary across regions. Given this, a quality of life index is computed for Albania, Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Poland, Romania, Yugoslavia, USSR, and Greece assuming that all amenities are equally weighted. All amenities considered are scaled from 0 - 100, so that the index is independent of units of measurement. According to the adopted quality of life criterion Romania is on the top of the ranking followed by Yugoslavia, Poland, Czechoslovakia, Albania, Bulgaria, and Hungary. The Former-USSR scores higher and Greece lower than all of them.