Well-Being and the Democratic State: How the Public Sector Promotes Human Happiness

Alexander Pacek (), Benjamin Radcliff () and Mark Brockway ()
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Alexander Pacek: Texas A&M University
Benjamin Radcliff: University of Notre Dame
Mark Brockway: University of Notre Dame

Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, 2019, vol. 143, issue 3, No 11, 1147-1159

Abstract: Abstract While a growing literature within the study of subjective well-being demonstrates the impact of socio-political factors on subjective well-being, scholars have conspicuously failed to consider the role of the size and scope of government as determinants of well-being. In this study, we examine the size of the public sector as a determinant of cross-national variation in life satisfaction across the industrial democracies. At the individual-level, we find that public employees are happier and exhibit greater life satisfaction than otherwise similar others. At the aggregate level, the data strongly suggest that the subjective well-being varies positively with the size of the public sector. The implications for the study of life satisfaction are discussed.

Keywords: Public employment; Size of government; Happiness; Life satisfaction; Welfare state; Labor unions; Public sector (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2019
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DOI: 10.1007/s11205-018-2017-x

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