In this study, we identify some individual and contextual factors potentially affecting subjective well-being in developing countries and check their effect in the Ecuadorian case. Ecuador is an oil country where attempts have been made to overcome deep social and territorial inequalities by placing human well-being at the core of public policy through the National Plan for Good Living. By means of ordinary least squares and ordered logit with clustered standard errors, as well as multilevel ordered logit models, we find that oil-dependent territories negatively affect well-being. Moreover, women and indigenous people report lower well-being, while personal income, education, housing quality, institutional trust, health insurance and social relationships can improve it. From a policy perspective, we find that basic unmet needs still need to be fulfilled to increase well-being, and further improvements of the institutional framework, redistributive system and inclusion policies are required. In this respect, we observe that Good Living-based policy accurately addresses these elements and, therefore, has great potential for application in other countries with similar characteristics.

This paper analyses the returns to education in Ecuador based on cross-sectional data collected by a National Survey at the individual- and canton-levels in 2005 and 2015. The multilevel analysis provides the methodological framework that allows capturing the regional peculiarities of data as well as addressing the high regional economic heterogeneity. The two level- random intercept and random slope models are used to examine the impact of individual-level and canton-level characteristics on the labour income. In subsidiary, the paper explains the proportion of variance in individual- level income that is explained by canton- level characteristics

This study examines the determinants of wage gap differences based on gender, ethnicity, and area of residence (urban vs. rural) in Ecuador for the years 2007 and 2017. By combining the Oaxaca-Blinder decomposition with unconditional quantile regression, we identify the extent to which the wage gap between two groups is due to characteristics (endowment) or unexplained factors at various points of the distribution, i.e. for low-, medium- and high-income workers. Results show that, on average, the gender and ethnic wage gap in 2017 increased slightly with respect to 2007, while the area wage gaps remained stable. However, progresses have mainly benefited those at the top of the income distribution, while disparities have widened for those at the bottom. As regards endowment effects, education mainly explains area and ethnicity wage gaps, while there is an important unexplained part that contributes more to gender wage differentials.

Con el objetivo de explorar el potencial de un impuesto a las bebidas azucaradas como medida de salud pública en Ecuador, se estiman las elasticidades precio propia, precio-cruzada e ingreso de la demanda de bebidas no alcohólicas a nivel de hogar. Utilizando un Sistema Casi Ideal de Demanda Cuadrática (QUAIDS), se encuentra que, contrario al consumo de bebidas soft, el consumo de gaseosas es elástico. Estos resultados revelaron ser independientes del nivel de ingreso del hogar. Además, se halló una relación de sustitución entre las bebidas gaseosas y los lácteos. El gravamen de gaseosas, por tanto, podría disminuir su consumo y dirigirlo hacia bebidas más saludables. Palabras clave: Elasticidad de la demanda; bebidas azucaradas; impuesto. ABSTRACT This paper explores the potential effects of a tax on sugar-sweetened beverages as a public health policy in Ecuador by estimating the own, cross-price and income elasticities of non-alcoholic beverages at household level. We estimated a Quadratic Almost Ideal Demand System (QUAIDS) and found that, contrary to soft drinks, the consumption of soda is elastic. This revealed to be independent of the household income level. It was also found a substitution relationship between soda drinks and dairy drinks. Thus, taxation of soda drinks could decrease its consumption and direct it to healthier alternatives. Keywords: Elasticity of demand; sugar-sweetened beverages; tax.

This paper presents the poverty index for Ecuador based on the methodology of Alkire and Foster (AF) (2007, 2011 a). The proposed methodology consists of six dimensions: educational conditions of the home, conditions of the childhood and the youth, health, work, access to the public services domiciliary and the conditions of the House and income. The index uses a simple weighting structure, in which each variable has the same weight regardless of the dimension it belongs to. Some results are presented in a very general way. The results of IP Ecuador indicate that the multidimensional poverty in Ecuador was reduced between 2001 and 2010 for households with less than 4 deprivations. It can be concluded that despite the reduction in all measures of multidimensional poverty, large imbalances persist between poor and non-poor people. Also, there are large provincial differences, regardless of the dimension analyzed. Este trabajo presenta el índice de Pobreza para Ecuador basada en la metodología de Alkire y Foster (AF) (2007, 2011 a). La metodología propuesta se compone de seis dimensiones: condiciones educativas del hogar, condiciones de la niñez y la juventud, salud, trabajo, acceso a los servicios públicos domiciliarios y las condiciones de la vivienda e ingresos. El índice utiliza una estructura de ponderación simple, en la que cada variable tiene el mismo peso indistintamente a la dimensión que pertenezca. Se presentan, de forma muy general, algunos resultados. Los resultados del IP Ecuador indican que la pobreza multidimensional en Ecuador se redujo entre 2001 y 2010 para hogares con menos de 4 privaciones. Se puede concluir que a pesar de la reducción en todas las medidas de pobreza multidimensional, persisten grandes desequilibrios entre la población pobre y no pobre. Así mismo, se observan grandes diferencias provinciales, indistintamente de la dimensión analizada.