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An Exploratory Analysis of Societal Preferences for Research-Driven Quality of Life Improvements in Canada

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Abstract

Research in the humanities, arts, and social sciences (HASS) tends to have impacts that enhance quality of life (QOL) but that are not amenable to pricing in established markets. If the economic value of ‘non-market’ research impacts is ignored when making the business case for HASS research, society will under-invest in it. My goal in this research was to quantify priorities and tradeoffs Canadians were willing to make between broad QOL attributes. A national sample (N = 1,612; 14,571 observations) cleaved into five distinct latent classes, each of which varied according to their preferences and willingness to pay for QOL impacts. One class, comprising 21% of the sample, placed a strong priority on QOL indicators relating to people, community, and culture, and was willing to pay, on average, $892 per household per year for improvements across a full range of QOL attributes. While willing to pay $1,393 per household per year in total, a second segment, comprising 20% of the sample, focused heavily on benefits more likely to be derived from science and technology research. Willingness to pay for specific and aggregate improvements amongst the balance of the sample was lower. Diverse preferences regarding potential QOL impacts suggest that researchers will need to consider both the source and magnitude of public benefits arising from HASS research in the future.

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Notes

  1. At the time of the March 2007 survey, Cdn $1 = US $0.85.

  2. Statistics Canada, CANSIM, table 358-0001/Catalogue 8F0006XIE.

  3. MA.36.2.13.6.2 from N. Sloane’s orthogonal array library, www.research.att.com/~njas/oadir/index.html.

  4. Canadian Cancer Society/National Cancer Institute of Canada: Canadian Cancer Statistics 2007. Online: www.cancer.ca/Canada-wide/Publications/Cancer%20statistics.aspx?sc_lang=en.

  5. http://www.statcan.gc.ca/pub/16-256-x/2008000/5212347-eng.htm.

  6. To the best of my knowledge, this was the first time that LC analysis was used to identify both protestors and random responders quantitatively.

  7. In an effort to address challenges relating to all phases of research evaluation in Canada, SSHRC has recently funded 17 diverse projects, including a number on research attribution pathways under their Research Impacts Initiative.

  8. Only 133 of 1,920 (6.9%) survey respondents in this survey indicated they were highly aware of the scope and range of HASS research activities in Canada.

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Acknowledgments

I thank the Canadian Social Science and Humanities Research Council’s Research Impacts Initiative for project funding. MAR was supported by the Canada Research Chairs program. I have benefited greatly from discussions with researchers and research administrators at the annual SSHRC Research Impact workshops in 2007, 2008, and 2009. Thanks also to two anonymous reviewers for valuable comments and suggestions.

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  1. Environment Department, University of York, York, UK

    Murray A. Rudd

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Rudd, M.A. An Exploratory Analysis of Societal Preferences for Research-Driven Quality of Life Improvements in Canada. Soc Indic Res 101, 127–153 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11205-010-9659-7

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