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Violent conflict and unhappiness: evidence from the 2016 ‘Life in Transition' III surve

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  • Maksym Obrizan

    (Kyiv School of Economics, Kyiv, Ukraine)

Abstract

This paper investigates the effect of violence on happiness in 14 countries affected by recent conflicts, using data from the ‘Life in Transition' III survey conducted in 2016 by the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development and the World Bank in all transition countries from a former Eastern Bloc (except for Turkmenistan). Out of 19,081 observations with non-missing responses, 2,605 (or 13.7%) households have been affected by some form of violence. When each of the three violence indicators – physical injury, having a household member killed or living in a household displaced due to a conflict – is entered separately, the probability of being happy reduces by 6.3-8.2% points depending on the type of violence. When three violence indicators are added at once, and also in some robustness checks, it is only forced displacement that has a statistically significant negative effect on happiness. These results indicate that violence has a prolonged and substantial negative effect on life satisfaction, given that many of the conflicts started 20 years ago or more.

Suggested Citation

  • Maksym Obrizan, 2019. "Violent conflict and unhappiness: evidence from the 2016 ‘Life in Transition' III surve," Economics Bulletin, AccessEcon, vol. 39(1), pages 192-199.
    • Handle: RePEc:ebl:ecbull:eb-18-00770
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    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Coupe, Tom & Obrizan, Maksym, 2016. "The impact of war on happiness: The case of Ukraine," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 132(PA), pages 228-242.
    2. Van Praag, Bernard M.S. & Romanov, Dmitri & Ferrer-i-Carbonell, Ada, 2010. "Happiness and financial satisfaction in Israel: Effects of religiosity, ethnicity, and war," Journal of Economic Psychology, Elsevier, vol. 31(6), pages 1008-1020, December.
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    7. Heinz Welsch, 2008. "The Social Costs of Civil Conflict: Evidence from Surveys of Happiness," Kyklos, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 61(2), pages 320-340, May.
    8. Djankov, Simeon & Nikolova, Elena & Zilinsky, Jan, 2016. "The happiness gap in Eastern Europe," Journal of Comparative Economics, Elsevier, vol. 44(1), pages 108-124.
    9. Olga Shemyakina & Anke Plagnol, 2013. "Subjective Well-Being and Armed Conflict: Evidence from Bosnia-Herzegovina," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 113(3), pages 1129-1152, September.
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    Cited by:

    1. Tom Coupé & Maksym Obrizan, 2024. "War and Happiness," Working Papers in Economics 24/06, University of Canterbury, Department of Economics and Finance.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    happiness; violence; conflict; life in transition; LiTS;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • I3 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Welfare, Well-Being, and Poverty
    • N4 - Economic History - - Government, War, Law, International Relations, and Regulation

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