: Material Well-being and Happiness in Transition Countries

Marko Družiæ Martina Majstoroviæ
Additional contact information
Marko Družiæ Martina Majstoroviæ: Faculty of Economics and Business Zagreb, University of Zagreb, Zagreb, Croatia. University of Zagreb, Zagreb, Croatia

Zagreb International Review of Economics and Business, 2017, vol. 20, issue 2, 21-32

Abstract: The purpose of this paper is to further the research of the connection between material well-being and happiness in transition economies. We analyzed panel data obtained from the World Database of Happiness and Eurostat. Our results indicate that out of all the major macroeconomic variables (GDP, employment, inflation, taxes etc.), the most significant (and the only stable) predictor of changes in happiness in transition countries is the level of employment. The results are consistent with a hypothesis of a still prevalent “socialist mentality” in the analyzed sample of countries which are all formerly socialist economies that typically place high (or full) employment as the highest economic priority (as opposed to GDP growth, low inflation etc.). Our results differ from the conclusions of the few studies done on this sample of countries, which suggests additional research on the subject is likely required. JEL Classification: I, I3, I31

Keywords: : GDP; unemployment, happiness, well-being, transition (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2017
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://hrcak.srce.hr/index.php?show=clanak&id_clanak_jezik=279316 (text/html)
Abstract only available on-line

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:zag:zirebs:v:20:y:2017:i:2:p:21-32

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
Zagreb International Review of Economics and Business, Faculty of Economics and Business, Trg J. F. Kennedy 6, 10000 Zagreb, Croatia.
http://www.efzg.hr/default.aspx?id=6045

Access Statistics for this article

Zagreb International Review of Economics and Business is currently edited by Soumitra Sharma

More articles in Zagreb International Review of Economics and Business from Faculty of Economics and Business, University of Zagreb Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Jurica Šimurina ( this e-mail address is bad, please contact ).