Subjective Well-being and Regional Quality of Life in Russia

On the final day of the 13th LCSR International Workshop, Ekaterina Nastina presented a study "Subjective Well-being and Regional Quality of Life in Russia" co-authored with Anna Almakaeva. 

The study examines to what extend objective living conditions in a region determine subjective well-being and continues the project published earlier in Sociodigger. The analysis is based on the survey conducted by the LCSR in cooperation with CESSI in 60 regions of Russia in 2019-2020.

The main explanatory model treats subjective well-being and objective conditions as being mediated by the perceived quality of life. The findings show that while subjective well-being and objective conditions are related to perceived quality of life, it cannot act as a mediator. The impact of objective conditions on subjective well-being was not detected, but they do partially explain perceived quality of life. The latter is not unexpected given that subjective well-being is surprisingly stable across Russian regions while subjective quality of life significantly differs along with objective indicators. Therefore, subjective quality of life is a better measure of how efficacy of regional institutions.  

Prepared by Alina Gasanova