Social Welfare Preferences and Sustainable Development Goals. A Multivariate Analysis Approach

This paper explores the interrelationship between individual social welfare preferences (SWPs) and sustainable development goals (SDGs). Social welfare preferences are measured through the World Values Survey. To illustrate the proposed approach, we focus on SDG 6, which aims to ensure clean water and sanitation for all. More specifically, SDG progress is measured through SDG Target 6.4. The methodology employed is mainly based on Discriminant Analysis, Factor Analysis, Canonical Correlation Analysis, and Cluster Analysis. First, individuals are categorized according to their SWPs and an analysis of the interrelationships between these SWP types is carried out. In a second step, the relationships between SWP types and several sustainability‐related variables are also analyzed. The results show the existence of heterogeneity in SWPs both within each country and across countries. They also show that the different SWPs are interrelated both among themselves and with the sustainability variables. The latter confirms the hypothesis that the sustainability outcomes of the countries and their progress toward the SDGs are related to the prevailing SWPs in their respective societies. This indicates the need to design effective and inclusive strategies that align with the diverse attitudes and values within society, thereby ultimately leading to outcomes of a more sustainable and impactful nature. Moreover, the existence of various groups of countries as regards their SWPs suggests that specific policies and initiatives should be developed for each group and shared within each group. Finally, the proposed methodology can also be applied to other SDGs and SDG targets.