The increasing attention to the multidimensional nature of well-being has necessitated the development of ad hoc methodologies not only for the purpose of its measurement, but also for assessing the impact that public policies have on well-being.

Among OECD countries, Italy has been the first to link a set of well-being indicators to its economic policy programming. The reform law n. 163/2016 (reform of the Italian budget law) provided for the incorporation of Equitable and Sustainable Well-being (ESW) indicators into the policy-making process.

The project “Modelling of Equitable and Sustainable Well-being Indicators for Policy Use”, developed by the Department of the Treasury and the Centre on Well-being, Inclusion, Sustainability and Equal Opportunity (WISE) of the OECD, with the support of the Directorate General for Structural Reform Support (DG REFORM, REFORM/IM2020/004) of the European Commission, fits within this context with the aim of strengthening the modelling in use at the MEF and the in-house analytical capacity for the analysis and forecasting of the 12 ESW indicators related to the economic and financial programming cycle.

The project, lasting 19 months from November 2020, focused on three ESW indicators: (1) (perceived) healthy life expectancy at birth; (2) the share of population with excess weight (obese or overweight); and (3) the rate of early leavers from education and training systems. For each of them, after a thorough analysis of the literature, an econometric model was developed. The models allow both to conduct forecasts analysis according to the macroeconomic framework and the evolution of the main explanatory variables, and to assess the impact of the main economic policy interventions.

In addition, an Action Plan was prepared as part of the project that identifies the main measures to be implemented to increase the integration of ESW indicators into the economic-financial programming cycle.