What impact has the economic crisis had on quality of life in Europe? A multidimensional and fuzzy approach

This paper presents a multidimensional and fuzzy approach to measuring the quality of life in a longitudinal context, with the aim of evaluating the impact of the economic crisis. In the paper the concept of quality of life is shaped by living conditions and resources, behaviour patterns and preferences, as well as perception of satisfaction in key social and economic aspects. The debate is concerned with how to aggregate such various components, variables or items in constructing indicators of quality of life. The methodology is applied to the European quality of life survey cross-sectional data for the rounds 2007 and 2012; the paper aims to evaluating the main changes which occurred in a period ranging from a pre-crisis year to a year where the economic crisis has occurred, but not yet concluded.