Improves our understanding of the determinants of well-being in Latin America using a broad "quality-of-life" concept that challenges standard assumptions in economics, including those about the relationship between happiness and income. Builds upon new economic approaches related to the study...

"Focuses on the role in the policymaking process of new metrics for measuring the effects on individual well-being of institutional, macroeconomic, and policy environments--for example, the effects of macroeconomic uncertainty and lack of access to health insurance--as well as the effects of...

"Series of well-written articles examines regional poverty and income distribution. Includes separate articles on Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Mexico, Peru, and Venezuela, as well as over 150 tables. Valuable contribution"--Handbook of Latin American Studies, v. 57