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CPS877 Paula J.G. et al.
The trajectories of Ireland, Greece, Portugal, and Spain (Figure 4) were of
particular interest given the bail-out programs and associated restructuring
plans plus austerity measures implemented in these countries during the
course of the study period (in addition to the initial stimulus packages adopted
by the OECD countries after 2008). The trajectories were complemented by an
analysis of the variables’ variation in each country to appreciate the impact
and extent of the local government and European measures and policies. In
the case of Ireland, there was a trajectory inflection from 2010 onwards mainly
based on the favorable movement of variables as labor insecurity,
unemployment, house expenses, working long-hours, and secondary
education. At the same time, Greece and Spain presented long trajectories
with inflections from 2014 resulting from favorable employment,
unemployment, working long-hours, secondary education, and water
satisfaction (in Greece) plus household income, employment, labor insecurity,
unemployment, water satisfaction, and feeling safe (in Spain). Although
Portugal also benefited from a bail-out program, the country trajectory was
much shorter and presented an inflection from 2013 onwards which was
mainly due to favorable (but limited) movements in relation to employment,
labor insecurity, unemployment, house expenses, secondary education, and
feeling safe.

4. Discussion and Conclusion
Although the OECD “How’s Life” datasets were not complete for all
member and partner countries nor the entire set of variables, it was possible
to select 34 countries and 15 variables over a period of seven years with a
reduced number of data gaps. The global analysis of the datasets permitted
to detect a Guttman effect in the evolution of the OECD countries given the
general progress (with a stagnation phase from 2011 to 2013) in terms of
quality and conditions of life over time (axis 1). At the same time, there was a
significant decline in relation to essential aspects (due to the volatility of the
variables associated to the individual, family, and government budgets) until
2012 but the general recovery afterward permitted to exceed the 2009 levels
by 2015 (axis 2).
In this context, the STATIS interstructure revealed not only the existence of
a common structure for the objects representing the annual data tables, but
also a sequential evolution with a good representation of the years. However,
it was insightful to notice the contrasting interstructure opposition of the years
2009-2011 relative to 2012-2015. Furthermore, the correlation coefficients of
the compromise principal components and the initial variables permitted to
interpret the meaning of the axes based on the variables’ oppositions. So, axis
1 relates to the social quality and conditions of life while axis 2 is associated
with the dependency on the wealth circumstances at an individual level.

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