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The Impact of Democracy on Well-being

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  • Marta Orviska
  • Anetta Caplanova
  • John Hudson

Abstract

Can governance impact directly on well-being? In this paper we examine subjective well-being using data for a cross section of countries from the World Values data set. We find that regional democratic satisfaction impacts on both individual happiness and life satisfaction. However, the impact is less evident for women, rich people and for those in rich countries. The fact that the governance variable analysis is based on regional differences in democratic satisfaction reminds us that governance and indeed happiness often differs within countries as well as between them. The use of regional satisfaction in this manner helps overcome endogeneity problems which would be present if we were to use individual democratic satisfaction. Other significant determinants of happiness include settlement size, marital status, income, unemployment and being part of a linguistic minority/majority grouping. Copyright Springer Science+Business Media B.V. 2014

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  • Marta Orviska & Anetta Caplanova & John Hudson, 2014. "The Impact of Democracy on Well-being," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 115(1), pages 493-508, January.
    • Handle: RePEc:spr:soinre:v:115:y:2014:i:1:p:493-508
    DOI: 10.1007/s11205-012-9997-8
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    2. Jason A. Husser & Kenneth E. Fernandez, 2018. "We Are Happier than We Realize: Underestimation and Conflation in Measuring Happiness," Journal of Happiness Studies, Springer, vol. 19(2), pages 587-606, February.
    3. Anetta Čaplánová & Rudolf Sivák & John Hudson, 2012. "Vplyv priamych zahraničných investícií na inovačnú činnosť firiem [The Impact of Foreign Direct Investment on Firms´ Innovation Activities]," Politická ekonomie, Prague University of Economics and Business, vol. 2012(6), pages 764-779.
    4. Fedotenkov, Igor, 2021. "The long road to democracy: Does the demand for democracy affect its actual level?," MPRA Paper 106286, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    5. Milan Lalić & Milka Bubalo Živković & Bojan Đerčan & Dragana Tekić, 2024. "Quality of Life as a Limiting Factor in the Development of the Region along the Great Bačka Canal (Serbia)," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 16(6), pages 1-33, March.
    6. Daniel Homocianu, 2024. "Life Satisfaction: Insights from the World Values Survey," Societies, MDPI, vol. 14(7), pages 1-41, July.
    7. Jesús Peiró-Palomino & Andrés J. Picazo-Tadeo, 2018. "Assessing well-being in European regions. Does government quality matter?," Working Papers 2018/06, Economics Department, Universitat Jaume I, Castellón (Spain).
    8. Nesreen Nasser & Huda Fakhroo, 2021. "An Investigation of the Self-Perceived Well-Being Determinants: Empirical Evidence From Qatar," SAGE Open, , vol. 11(2), pages 21582440211, April.
    9. Danilo Garcia & Saleh Moradi, 2013. "The Affective Temperaments and Well-Being: Swedish and Iranian Adolescents’ Life Satisfaction and Psychological Well-Being," Journal of Happiness Studies, Springer, vol. 14(2), pages 689-707, April.
    10. DiMaria, charles-henri, 2024. "Let’s all get pessimistic about ill-being: civil society and political organisation mediations," MPRA Paper 121603, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    11. Hongtao Jia & Lei Zhu & Jing Du, 2022. "Fuzzy Comprehensive Evaluation Model of the Farmers’ Sense of Gain in the Provision of Rural Infrastructures: The Case of Tourism-Oriented Rural Areas of China," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(10), pages 1-18, May.
    12. João Leitão & Helena Alves & Dina Pereira, 2016. "Open innovative governance, transparency and citizens´ quality of life: An application to Portuguese municipalities," Working Papers. Collection B: Regional and sectoral economics 1606, Universidade de Vigo, GEN - Governance and Economics research Network.
    13. Raufhon Salahodjaev & Barno Abdullaeva & Shakhnoza Tosheva & Arletta Isaeva, 2021. "Female Parliamentarians and the Distribution of National Happiness," Applied Research in Quality of Life, Springer;International Society for Quality-of-Life Studies, vol. 16(4), pages 1571-1585, August.
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    15. František Murgaš & Anna Tirpáková & František Petrovič, 2024. "Impact of Regional Disparities in Social Capital and Its Components on Quality of Life," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 16(22), pages 1-18, November.
    16. Xinghua Zhao & Zongfeng Sun, 2020. "The Effect of Satisfaction with Environmental Performance on Subjective Well-Being in China: GDP as a Moderating Factor," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(5), pages 1-12, February.
    17. Andreas T. Schmidt & Daan Juijn, 2024. "Economic inequality and the long-term future," Politics, Philosophy & Economics, , vol. 23(1), pages 67-99, February.
    18. Antonio Sianes & Manuel Dorado-Moreno & César Hervás-Martínez, 2014. "Rating the Rich: An Ordinal Classification to Determine Which Rich Countries are Helping Poorer Ones the Most," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 116(1), pages 47-65, March.
    19. Gabriele Prati, 2022. "The Association between Subjective Well-being and Regime Type across 78 countries: the moderating role of Political Trust," Applied Research in Quality of Life, Springer;International Society for Quality-of-Life Studies, vol. 17(6), pages 3393-3413, December.
    20. Raufhon Salahodjaev & Ziroat Mirziyoyeva, 2021. "The Link between Food Security and Life Satisfaction: Panel Data Analysis," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(5), pages 1-9, March.

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