Determinants of subjective well-being in high and low income countries: do happiness equations differ across countries

A paper by Francesco Sarracino has just been accepted to the Journal of Socio-Economics

"Determinants of subjective well-being in high and low income countries: do happiness equations differ across countries?" by Francesco Sarracino, an associate researcher at the LCSR, has been accepted to the Journal of Socio-Economics.

Various theories have been proposed to explain what really makes people happy or satisfied with their life. Unfortunately, the evidence collected so far is mainly focused on developed countries. Furthermore, there is still not a general agreement on whether the determinants of subjective well-being are the same or not across countries. A deeper understanding of what is really important for individuals’ well‐being could provide positive spill‐overs in drawing new economic policies to improve the human lot. After controlling for the effects of a standard set of correlates of subjective well-being, including absolute income and positional goods, present work tests the cross‐country comparability of an extended version of the happiness equation including proxies of social capital and relational goods. To answer this question, I focus on two extremely opposite groups of countries: the richest and the poorest ones. Results suggest an overall stability of the happiness equation in the two groups of countries. Proxies of relational goods are positively correlated with subjective well‐being. However, different aspects matter depending on whether we are considering poor or rich countries. Finally, social capital proxies come out as significant correlates of subjective well‐being with stronger coefficients in high income countries.

 

We congratulate Francesco and wish him further successes in his research!