Life satisfaction data in a developing country: CaliBRANDO measurement system

This paper describes one large multi-annual research project–CaliBRANDO–about subjective wellbeing in a developing country. CaliBRANDO is a life satisfaction measurement system implemented in Cali, the third largest city in Colombia, South America. Data have been collected annually since 2014 and aim at collecting comprehensive temporal information about individual-level subjective wellbeing and its relationship with government performance. CaliBRANDO is the only study in Colombia that measures subjective wellbeing in a large city in this way. This paper presents the methodology followed in the study and discusses the relevance of the data collected.


a b s t r a c t
This paper describes one large multi-annual research project-Cali-BRANDO-about subjective wellbeing in a developing country. Cali-BRANDO is a life satisfaction measurement system implemented in Cali, the third largest city in Colombia, South America. Data have been collected annually since 2014 and aim at collecting comprehensive temporal information about individual-level subjective wellbeing and its relationship with government performance. CaliBRANDO is the only study in Colombia that measures subjective wellbeing in a large city in this way. This paper presents the methodology followed in the study and discusses the relevance of the data collected.  It is possible to link life satisfaction with government performance in several domains. Data also allow the construction of valid indexes to proxy government performance and citizens' perceptions in different domains.
Data allow the establishment of individual factors that affect life satisfaction. Information at the individual level includes variables such as education, income, employment, savings, health condition, and living standards.
CaliBRANDO system gathers data about health condition. It uses a widely known health index (CDC5) which proxies for perceived general health condition and number of days feeling physically or mentally unwell. The survey also measures weight, height, and abdominal circumference of each respondent to facilitate the reporting of reliable data on overweight people and obesity rates. All health measures are comparable with international data.

Data
CaliBRANDO is a survey conducted annually by the Observatory of Public Policies (POLIS) of Universidad Icesi since 2014. This survey measures life satisfaction and is the only study in Colombia created with the main objective of measuring subjective wellbeing. CaliBRANDO is representative in terms of the city´s gender distribution, socioeconomic strata and race/ethnicity composition. Surveys are conducted via face-to-face interviews with adults (18 and older) by trained pollsters in 53 locations across the city. To ensure data quality, during fieldwork there are four pollsters' supervisors present. Informants are randomly selected. Respondents are approached by explaining the objective of the study, assuring confidentiality, and emphasizing that the data will be used for academic purposes. In addition, it is made clear to respondents that they could stop the survey at any time and participation is voluntary. Respondents are measured during the survey in terms of their weight, height and abdominal circumference. For this purpose, each pollster has an electronic scale and a meter tape.
CaliBRANDO uses a stratified multi-stage sampling system; every year about 1200 surveys are completed. Information is collected in eight areas: sociodemographic information, life satisfaction, educational attainment and expectations, employment and job quality, income and living standards, health, satisfaction with government performance, and satisfaction with personal domains. The next section explains each area in detail.
This study follows local and international rules for empirical research and is approved by the Institutional Review Board of Universidad Icesi. Likewise, respondents provide verbal consent before survey commencement. CaliBRANDO data are available at: www.icesi.edu.co/polis/. There is a yearly policy brief displaying principal findings, available in Spanish and English [1].
CaliBRANDO data are used for three purposes: 1. Produce academic research. 2. Generate a yearly policy brief aimed at disseminating academic research on life satisfaction to a broader array of stakeholders beyond academia, including the public. 3. Provide information to local government about life satisfaction and its relationships with government performance.

Experimental design, materials and methods
The CaliBRANDO survey is structured in eight sections. Each section is composed of different questions that facilitate the creation of composite indexes. The structure presented below (Table 1)  Table 1 CaliBRANDO survey structure.

Sociodemographic information
Year

Acknowledgments
CaliBRANDO is fully financed through academic research grants. Universidad ICESI has provided the necessary funding for this project. The Observatory of Public Policies-POLIS of Universidad Icesi conceptualized the project in 2013 and implemented it thereafter.