Integral model for measuring unsatisfied basic needs

Abstract

This paper works on the concept of unsatisfied basic needs as a system for measuring the level of country's development index. In the case of Colombia and other Latin American countries, is mainly based on the determination of the level of poverty, inequality, and quality of life of the population. This research achieved the characterization of the variables that measure unsatisfied basic needs in order to make a prediction through data mining. The data analyzed was taken from official studies as the national census; it is recognized that the measurement of quality of life and well-being can be carried out both objectively and subjectively. However, official studies only include objective measurements, so it is important to answer the following question: how can this deficiency in the surveys be corrected? For this reason, a global satisfaction indicator was designed, it is built from the individual satisfaction components. It is concluded that for levels of housing and households the objective measurements correctly classify the instances, but for the level of people, level of satisfaction was considered as an indicator of subjective nature and that it will depend, among others, on demographic, cultural variables and in general on their individual beliefs. A categorization model based on demographic variables is proposed to calculate the global satisfaction index and with which the percentage of instances correctly classified is improved in all cases by more than 30%.