The Determinants of Subjective Well-Being in a Developing Country: The Ecuadorian Case

Nicola Pontarollo, Mercy Orellana () and Joselin Segovia ()
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Mercy Orellana: Universidad de Cuenca
Joselin Segovia: Universidad de Cuenca

Journal of Happiness Studies, 2020, vol. 21, issue 8, No 13, 3007-3035

Abstract: Abstract In this study, we identify some individual and contextual factors potentially affecting subjective well-being in developing countries and check their effect in the Ecuadorian case. Ecuador is an oil country where attempts have been made to overcome deep social and territorial inequalities by placing human well-being at the core of public policy through the National Plan for Good Living. By means of ordinary least squares and ordered logit with clustered standard errors, as well as multilevel ordered logit models, we find that oil-dependent territories negatively affect well-being. Moreover, women and indigenous people report lower well-being, while personal income, education, housing quality, institutional trust, health insurance and social relationships can improve it. From a policy perspective, we find that basic unmet needs still need to be fulfilled to increase well-being, and further improvements of the institutional framework, redistributive system and inclusion policies are required. In this respect, we observe that Good Living-based policy accurately addresses these elements and, therefore, has great potential for application in other countries with similar characteristics.

Keywords: Individual well-being; Ecuador; Individual characteristics; Contextual factors; Multilevel model (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: C30 I30 P16 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (11)

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Working Paper: The determinants of subjective wellbeing in a developing country: The Ecuadorian case (2017)
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DOI: 10.1007/s10902-019-00211-w

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