Cross-country determinants of life satisfaction: exploring different determinants across groups in society

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

LSE Research Online Documents on Economics from London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library

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.

Keywords: Life Satisfaction; Happiness; Institutions; Extreme Bounds Analysis (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: H10 H40 I31 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 54 pages
Date: 2006-09
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (4)

Downloads: (external link)
http://eprints.lse.ac.uk/19290/ Open access version. (application/pdf)

Related works:
Journal Article: Cross-country determinants of life satisfaction: exploring different determinants across groups in society (2008)
Working Paper: Cross-Country Determinants of Life Satisfaction:Exploring Different Determinants across Groups inSociety (2006)
Working Paper: Cross-Country Determinants of Life Satisfaction: Exploring Different Determinants across Groups in Society (2006)
Working Paper: Cross-Country Determinants of Life Satisfaction: Exploring Different Determinants across Groups in Society (2005)
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