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Cross-Country Determinants of Life Satisfaction: Exploring Different Determinants across Groups in Society

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Author Info
Christian Bjørnskov (Aarhus School of Business)
Axel Dreher () (Department of Management, Technology, and Economics, ETH Zurich)
Justina A.V. Fischer (STICERD, London School of Economics)

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Abstract

This paper explores a wide range of cross-country determinants of life satisfaction exploiting a database of 90,000 observations in 70 countries. We distinguish four groups of aggregate variables as potential determinants of satisfaction: political, economic, institutional, and human development and culture. We use ordered probit to investigate the importance of these variables on individual life satisfaction and test the robustness of our results with Extreme Bounds Analysis. The results show that only a small number of factors, such as openness, business climate, postcommunism, the number of chambers in parliament, Christian majority, and infant mortality robustly influence life satisfaction across countries while the importance of many variables suggested in the previous literature is not confirmed. This remains largely true when the analysis splits national populations according to gender, income and political orientation also.

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Paper provided by KOF Swiss Economic Institute, ETH Zurich in its series Working papers with number 06-145.

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Length: 54 pages
Date of creation: Aug 2006
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Handle: RePEc:kof:wpskof:06-145

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Keywords: Life Satisfaction Happiness Institutions Extreme Bounds Analysis

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Find related papers by JEL classification:
I31 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Welfare and Poverty - - - General Welfare
H10 - Public Economics - - Structure and Scope of Government - - - General
H40 - Public Economics - - Publicly Provided Goods - - - General

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Cited by:
(explanations, Please report citation or reference errors to , or , if you are the registered author of the cited work, log in to your RePEc Author Service profile, click on "citations" and make appropriate adjustments.)

  1. Christian Bjørnskov & Axel Dreher & Justina Fischer, 2008. "Cross-country determinants of life satisfaction: exploring different determinants across groups in society," Social Choice and Welfare, Springer, vol. 30(1), pages 119-173, January. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
    Other versions:
  2. Christian Bjørnskov & Axel Dreher & Justina A. V. Fischer, 2005. "The bigger the better? Evidence of the effect of government size on life satisfaction around the world," Economics working paper series 05/44, CER-ETH - Center of Economic Research (CER-ETH) at ETH Zurich. [Downloadable!]
    Other versions:
  3. Fischer, Justina AV, 2008. "Competition and well-being: does market competition make people unhappy?," Working Paper Series in Economics and Finance 697, Stockholm School of Economics. [Downloadable!]
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