The impact of economic growth, inflation and unemployment on subjective financial satisfaction: A New global evidence

Using the happiness survey data, a robust body of literature has supported that people’s subjective well-being is related to economic growth, employment, and inflation. Motivated by “Happiness Economics,” this paper focuses on financial satisfaction, a proxy of subjective well-being. It examines the relationship between people’s financial satisfaction and nations’ macroeconomic performances. We use the World Values Survey and inflation, unemployment, and economic growth data collected from 2010–2014 to 2017–2022. We use the ordered probit and ordinary least squares regressions for the analysis. The findings show that financial satisfaction has a negative relationship with inflation and unemployment and a positive relationship with economic growth. Heterogeneity checks indicate that the association’s strength and statistical significance vary by gender, age, household income, marital status, educational attainment level, and employment status. The overall results suggest policymakers should strive to mitigate the economic vulnerability of women, older adults, low-income earners, low-educated, those who are not married but live together, and those who are not in the labor force to maximize the financial satisfaction of individuals and thus promote subjective well-being of them.