IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/bla/etrans/v15y2007i4p707-731.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Does transition make you happy?1

Author

Listed:
  • Peter Sanfey
  • Utku Teksoz

Abstract

This paper analyses life satisfaction in transition countries using evidence from the World Values Survey. The paper demonstrates that individuals in transition economies on average record lower values of self‐reported satisfaction with life compared with those in non‐transition countries. A comparison across time for a smaller sample of countries shows that life satisfaction levels have returned close to pre‐transition levels in most cases, after a dip in the mid‐1990s. The socio‐economic groups that exhibit relatively higher levels of happiness include students, people with higher levels of education and those on higher incomes. Happiness declines with age until the early‐50s and is slow to recover afterwards. Self‐employed people in transition countries show a level of satisfaction as high as, or higher than, full‐time employees, in contrast to evidence from non‐transition countries. In addition, satisfaction levels are highest in those countries where standards of economic governance are most advanced and where inequality is lower.

Suggested Citation

  • Peter Sanfey & Utku Teksoz, 2007. "Does transition make you happy?1," The Economics of Transition, The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, vol. 15(4), pages 707-731, October.
    • Handle: RePEc:bla:etrans:v:15:y:2007:i:4:p:707-731
    DOI: 10.1111/j.1468-0351.2007.00309.x
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-0351.2007.00309.x
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1111/j.1468-0351.2007.00309.x?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Ariel Herbert Fambeu & Georges Dieudonné Mbondo & Patricia Tchawa Yomi, 2022. "Bigger or better? The effect of public spending on happiness in Africa," African Development Review, African Development Bank, vol. 34(4), pages 487-499, December.
    2. Elvisa Drishti & Zamira Shkreli & Edvin Zhllima & Blendi Gerdoçi, 2023. "Deprivation, Social Mobility Considerations, and Life Satisfaction: A Comparative Study of 33 European Countries," Comparative Economic Studies, Palgrave Macmillan;Association for Comparative Economic Studies, vol. 65(3), pages 511-550, September.
    3. Sergei Guriev & Ekaterina Zhuravskaya, 2009. "(Un)happiness in Transition," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 23(2), pages 143-168, Spring.
    4. Grosfeld, Irena & Senik, Claudia, 2008. "The Emerging Aversion to Inequality. Evidence from Poland 1992-2005," CEPREMAP Working Papers (Docweb) 0805, CEPREMAP.
    5. Alícia Adserà & Francesca Dalla Pozza & Sergei Guriev & Lukas Kleine-Rueschkamp & Elena Nikolova, 2021. "Height and well-being during the transition from plan to market," Economic Policy, CEPR, CESifo, Sciences Po;CES;MSH, vol. 36(105), pages 77-120.
    6. Maksym Obrizan, 2020. "Transition welfare gaps: One closed, another to follow?," Economics of Transition and Institutional Change, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 28(4), pages 621-635, October.
    7. Lena Malesevic Perovic, 2010. "Life Satisfaction in Croatia," Croatian Economic Survey, The Institute of Economics, Zagreb, vol. 12(1), pages 45-81, April.
    8. Jiří Večerník, 2014. "Subjektivní blahobyt v České republice a střední Evropě: makro- a mikro-determinanty [Subjective Well-Being in the Czech Republic and Central Europe: Macro- and Micro-Determinants]," Politická ekonomie, Prague University of Economics and Business, vol. 2014(2), pages 249-269.
    9. Shuang Liu & Yan Cao & Hao Zhang, 2023. "Online Education and Subjective Well-Being in China: Multiple Mediating Roles of Social Class Mobility and Social Tolerance," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(3), pages 1-17, January.
    10. Zsoka Koczan, 2022. "Perceptions of economic well‐being in the Western Balkans," Economics of Transition and Institutional Change, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 30(4), pages 845-867, October.
    11. Alnaa, Samuel Erasmus & Matey, Juabin, 2022. "Macroeconomic Policy Formulation: The Driver of Economic Welfare in Ghana," MPRA Paper 113041, University Library of Munich, Germany, revised 11 Apr 2022.
    12. Popova, Olga, 2014. "Can religion insure against aggregate shocks to happiness? The case of transition countries," Journal of Comparative Economics, Elsevier, vol. 42(3), pages 804-818.
    13. Călin Vâlsan & Elena Druică & Zizi Goschin & Rodica Ianole-Călin, 2024. "The Perception of Economic Growth and the Romanian “Mioritic Syndrome”," Journal of the Knowledge Economy, Springer;Portland International Center for Management of Engineering and Technology (PICMET), vol. 15(1), pages 3718-3739, March.
    14. Nikolova, Elena & Sanfey, Peter, 2016. "How much should we trust life satisfaction data? Evidence from the Life in Transition Survey," Journal of Comparative Economics, Elsevier, vol. 44(3), pages 720-731.
    15. Chiara Amini & Elodie Douarin, 2020. "Corruption and Life Satisfaction in Transition: Is Corruption a Social Norm in Eastern Europe?," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 151(2), pages 723-766, September.
    16. Vedran Recher, 2022. "History Matters: Life Satisfaction in Transition Countries," Journal of Happiness Studies, Springer, vol. 23(1), pages 171-193, January.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:bla:etrans:v:15:y:2007:i:4:p:707-731. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Wiley Content Delivery (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/ebrdduk.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.