The happiness gap in Eastern Europe

Simeon Djankov, Elena Nikolova and Jan Zilinsky

Journal of Comparative Economics, 2016, vol. 44, issue 1, 108-124

Abstract: Citizens in Eastern Europe are less satisfied with life than their peers in other countries. This happiness gap has persisted over time, despite predictions to the contrary by earlier scholars. It holds after controlling for a variety of covariates, such as the standard of living, life expectancy and Eastern Orthodox religion. Armed with a battery of surveys from the early 1990s to 2014, we argue that the happiness gap is explained by how citizens in post-communist countries perceive their governments. Eastern Europeans link their life satisfaction to higher perceived corruption and weaker government performance. Our results suggest that the transition from central planning is still incomplete, at least in the psychology of people.

Keywords: Happiness; Corruption; Government performance (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: C1 D60 D73 P20 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2016
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (58)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:jcecon:v:44:y:2016:i:1:p:108-124

DOI: 10.1016/j.jce.2015.10.006

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