Life satisfaction and diet in transition: Evidence from the Russian Longitudinal Monitoring Survey

This paper develops a theoretical framework and provides empirical evidence on the impacts of diet and lifestyles on life satisfaction in Russia using 1995-2005 data from the Russian Longitudinal Monitoring Survey. Our results suggest that diet measured as calories, fat, protein, and diversity of food consumption has a statistically significant effect on life satisfaction levels of the Russian population. In addition, living in a region with higher per capita income increases population’s life satisfaction. While living in a rural area, having health problems, and having young children affect individual life satisfaction in Russia in a negative and statistically significantly way. Life satisfaction is also positively correlated with education and income, and negatively with unemployment. Better understanding of the drivers of life satisfaction and more generally of subjective wellbeing in Russia can assist in the government decision-making processes, including the allocation of scarce resources and the design of public health policies.