Title: The cost of living in the best livable cities in the world: a brief predictive quantitative analysis

Authors: Rafaela Costa Martins De Mello Dourado; Alessandra De Ávila Montini

Addresses: Departamento de Administração, Faculdade de Economia Administração e Contabilidade, Universidade de São Paulo, Avenida Professor Luciano Gualberto, 908, Cidade Universitária, São Paulo – SP, Brazil ' Departamento de Administração, Faculdade de Economia Administração e Contabilidade, Universidade de São Paulo, Avenida Professor Luciano Gualberto, 908, Cidade Universitária, São Paulo – SP, Brazil

Abstract: There are a lot of studies, papers, summaries, reports, and articles regarding the cost of living in different cities around the world. Although these studies are rich and robust, only the final results are published, like cities rankings, or summaries of top cities and lowest ranking cities. This paper's goal is to study the most livable cities using living cost data. To accomplish this objective, a cluster analysis has been conducted using 2015 prices data and three clusters were obtained in result: high, medium and low cost. In addition, a multinomial logistic regression using 2014 prices data was adjusted to predict the cluster each city would fall into. This model could help companies or even people to decide which city to move to in order to decrease living costs. It can be important to avoid a wrong decision in case of an upcoming cluster change for a determined city.

Keywords: multinomial logistic regression; cluster analysis; living costs; livable cities; predictive modelling; cost of living.

DOI: 10.1504/IJMDA.2016.081078

International Journal of Multivariate Data Analysis, 2016 Vol.1 No.1, pp.28 - 42

Received: 25 Jan 2016
Accepted: 17 Mar 2016
Published online: 20 Dec 2016 *