Formal Institutions and Subjective Well-Being: Revisiting the Cross-Country Evidence

Christian Bjørnskov (), Axel Dreher () and Justina A. V. Fischer ()

No 08-192, KOF Working papers from KOF Swiss Economic Institute, ETH Zurich

Abstract: A long tradition in economics explores the association between the quality of formal institutions and economic performance. The literature on the relationship between such institutions and happiness is, however, rather limited. In this paper, we revisit the findings from recent cross-country studies on the institutions-happiness association. Our findings suggest that the conclusions reached by previous studies are fairly sensitive to the specific measure of ‘happiness’ used. In addition, the results indicate that the welfare effects of policies may differ across phases of a country’s economic development. This bears important policy implications which we discuss in the concluding section of the paper.

Keywords: Happiness; institutions; policy implications (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I31 H10 H40 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2008-04
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Related works:
Journal Article: Formal institutions and subjective well-being: Revisiting the cross-country evidence (2010)
Working Paper: Formal Institutions and Subjective Well-Being: Revisiting the Cross-Country Evidence (2010)
Working Paper: Formal Institutions and Subjective Well-Being: Revisiting the Cross-Country Evidence (2009)
Working Paper: Formal Institutions and Subjective Well-Being: Revisiting the Cross-Country Evidence (2008)
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