Social Exclusion in Ecuador with Housing Indicators: A Regional Analysis

Abstract

Social exclusion is a major concern in developed economies and it is of great importance in developing countries. Exclusion directly impacts different aspects of the individual’s well-being making social exclusion a phenomenon of multidisciplinary interest. Therefore, the objective of this research is to analyze the social exclusion in Ecuador considering one of its dimensions, in this case housing and its conditions. For this purpose, a group of housing indicators is selected and, from them, a composite indicator is constructed. This composite indicator reflects the level of social exclusion of the Ecuadorian population at the national and regional (provincial) levels. Data used come from the National Survey of Employment, Unemployment and Sub-employment (ENEMDU), which was drawn up by the National Institute of Statistics and Censuses (INEC) for the years 2014 and 2017. The main results indicate that the exclusion situation improves nationally and regionally (in all provinces). It can also be seen that the levels of social exclusion are higher in the rural area and in the Ecuadorian Amazon provinces.