Distributional Dynamics of Life Satisfaction in Europe
Vanesa Jorda (),
Borja López-Noval () and
José María Sarabia ()
Additional contact information
Vanesa Jorda: University of Cantabria
Borja López-Noval: University of Cantabria
José María Sarabia: University of Cantabria
Journal of Happiness Studies, 2019, vol. 20, issue 4, No 2, 1015-1039
Abstract:
Abstract The promotion of subjective well-being is becoming a central goal of social and public policy. In this regard, it is sometimes argued that subjective well-being inequality is an informative indicator of social tensions. In this paper, we investigate the evolution of the life satisfaction distribution in Europe since 1973 using data from the Eurobarometer surveys. In order to respect the ordinal nature of subjective well-being and to avoid the need to impose an arbitrary scale, we use the Abul Naga and Yalcin index. We demonstrate that this index can be characterised as a measure of both inequality and polarisation, depending on the value of the parameters. We find that, at the European level, life satisfaction inequality was significantly higher in 2014 than in 1995. This result is mainly explained by the increase in inequality in the Mediterranean countries and Ireland in recent years, but especially since the Great Recession. Although polarisation and inequality present a similar trend at the European level, some differing patterns are observed for particular countries, thus suggesting that these two phenomena are not only conceptually different, but also complementary in the analysis of the distribution of subjective well-being.
Keywords: Subjective well-being; Inequality; Polarisation; Ordinal variables (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2019
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (4)
Downloads: (external link)
http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s10902-018-9985-z Abstract (text/html)
Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.
Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.
Export reference: BibTeX
RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan)
HTML/Text
Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:spr:jhappi:v:20:y:2019:i:4:d:10.1007_s10902-018-9985-z
Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.springer. ... fe/journal/10902/PS2
DOI: 10.1007/s10902-018-9985-z
Access Statistics for this article
Journal of Happiness Studies is currently edited by Antonella Delle Fave
More articles in Journal of Happiness Studies from Springer
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().