IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/taf/recsxx/v19y2016i2p193-217.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Macroeconomic Performance and Institutional Change: Evidence from Subjective Well-Being Data

Author

Listed:
  • Heinz Welsch
  • Jan Kühling

Abstract

The relationship between macroeconomic performance and institutional change is explored in member countries of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD). We first assess the effects of national income growth, unemployment and inflation on subjective well-being (SWB) in thirty OECD countries, and employ the relationships found to construct an index of macroeconomic performance in terms of SWB. Applying the index to the period 1990–2009, we find that macroeconomic performance has improved in OECD overall and in the majority of countries, and that there has been a convergence of performance within the OECD. We then present evidence that OECD countries' performance, as measured, is positively related to institutional change towards more trade openness and better institutional quality. We argue that both increased openness and improved institutional quality are correlates of economic and political integration and conclude that international integration has enhanced SWB by improving OECD countries' national macroeconomic performance.

Suggested Citation

  • Heinz Welsch & Jan Kühling, 2016. "Macroeconomic Performance and Institutional Change: Evidence from Subjective Well-Being Data," Journal of Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 19(2), pages 193-217, November.
    • Handle: RePEc:taf:recsxx:v:19:y:2016:i:2:p:193-217
    DOI: 10.1016/S1514-0326(16)30008-3
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1016/S1514-0326(16)30008-3
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/S1514-0326(16)30008-3?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
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to look for a different version below or search for a different version of it.

    Other versions of this item:

    Citations

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


    Cited by:

    1. Hideko Matsuo & Koen Matthijs, 2021. "The life course and subjective well-being across generations – an analysis based on cross-national surveys (2002–2016)," Vienna Yearbook of Population Research, Vienna Institute of Demography (VID) of the Austrian Academy of Sciences in Vienna, vol. 19(1), pages 417-466.
    2. Iban Ortuzar & Gemma Renart & Angels Xabadia, 2021. "Effects of Public Healthcare Budget Cuts on Life Satisfaction in Spain," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 156(1), pages 311-337, July.
    3. Sujarwoto Sujarwoto & Gindo Tampubolon & Adi Cilik Pierewan, 2018. "Individual and Contextual Factors of Happiness and Life Satisfaction in a Low Middle Income Country," Applied Research in Quality of Life, Springer;International Society for Quality-of-Life Studies, vol. 13(4), pages 927-945, December.
    4. Luis Rene Caceres, 2019. "Determinants of trust in government in Latin America," Remef - Revista Mexicana de Economía y Finanzas Nueva Época REMEF (The Mexican Journal of Economics and Finance), Instituto Mexicano de Ejecutivos de Finanzas, IMEF, vol. 14(3), pages 329-351, Julio - S.

    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • F15 - International Economics - - Trade - - - Economic Integration
    • E61 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Macroeconomic Policy, Macroeconomic Aspects of Public Finance, and General Outlook - - - Policy Objectives; Policy Designs and Consistency; Policy Coordination
    • I31 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Welfare, Well-Being, and Poverty - - - General Welfare, Well-Being

    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:taf:recsxx:v:19:y:2016:i:2:p:193-217. 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: Chris Longhurst (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.tandfonline.com/recs .

    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.