Application of Quality of Life Indicators to Socioeconomic Problems:

Abstract . Liu has presented and applied to several categories of areas a method of estimating comparative values for measuring the quality of life. This method is analyzed and extended through an application permitting evaluation of social and economic policies for country towns in Australia. Issues in Liu's method, particularly relating to the procedure for standardizing measurements and a much-needed validation test, are examined and, it is hoped, resolved. The nature of Liu's results is compared with that of the Australian results and they are found to be similar, particularly in that the quality of life values were useful in explaining migration, and were even better in explaining certain components of migration. The study extended the method to analysis of policy choices.