The Political Economy of Life Satisfaction: Democracy, National Wealth, and Personal Income
Document Type
Article
Publication Date
Spring 2024
Abstract
Numerous studies examine the micro-dynamics of subjective well-being (SWB) generally, or life satisfaction (LS) more specifically. Others also document the macro determinants of SWB and LS. We propose a model linking the two, in which an individual’s life satisfaction is contingent on (1) personal circumstances, (2) national factors such as democratic governance and the national wealth, and (3) the explicit interaction of these two levels of analysis. We test three sets of hypotheses that arise from this model with compiled data from six waves of the World Values Survey (WVS) data. The empirical evidence we present supports most of the hypotheses, including our novel proposition that both national wealth and democracy reduce the effect of individual personal income on LS.
Publication Information
Bellinger, Nisha; Krieckhaus, Jonathan; and Son, Byunghwan. (2024). "The Political Economy of Life Satisfaction: Democracy, National Wealth, and Personal Income". International Journal of Public Opinion Research, 36(1), edae001. https://doi.org/10.1093/ijpor/edae001