Tasting Freedom: happiness, religion and economic transition

Orsolya Lelkes

LSE Research Online Documents on Economics from London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library

Abstract: Economic transition lowered happiness on average, but did not affect all equally. This paper uses Hungarian survey data to study the impact of religion and economic transition on happiness. Religious involvement contributes positively to individuals¿ self-reported well-being. Controlling for personal characteristics of the respondents, money is a less important source of happiness for the religious. The impact of economic transition has varied greatly across different groups. The main winners from increasing economic freedom were the entrepreneurs. The religious were little affected by the changes. This implies that greater ideological freedom, measured by a greater social role of churches, may not influence happiness per se.

Keywords: Happiness; economic transition; religion; entrepreneurs (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: N0 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 33 pages
Date: 2002-08
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (9)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:ehl:lserod:6384

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