Determinants of Subjective Well-Being in Portugal: A Micro-Data Study

Sara Ramos () and Elias Soukiazis ()
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Sara Ramos: Faculty of Economics, University of Coimbra, Portugal
Elias Soukiazis: Faculty of Economics, University of Coimbra and GEMF, Portugal

No 2014-16, GEMF Working Papers from GEMF, Faculty of Economics, University of Coimbra

Abstract: The Subjective Well-Being status has gained a growing research attention in social sciences during the last decades. The attention given by the academic world to this issue has been followed by the community in general. This line of research is still undeveloped in Portugal, and therefore needs further investigation. The purpose of this study is to analyze the determinants of Life Satisfaction and Happiness as proxies for Subjective Well-Being of the Portuguese citizens using micro-data from the European Quality of Life Survey. OLS regressions and Ordinal Logistic models are estimated to identify the main factors that explain well-being in Portugal. We find that trust in public institutions, satisfaction with material conditions, volunteering activities and employment status have a positive and significant effect on Life Satisfaction. Our evidence also shows that satisfaction with family, satisfaction with material conditions, participation in sport activities, optimism and the marital status are relevant factors in explaining citizen s Happiness in Portugal. The results are similar using OLS or Maximum Likelihood estimation techniques on ordinal logistic models.

Keywords: Happiness; Life Satisfaction; Subjective Well-Being; Ordinal Logit Models; Factor Analysis. (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: C1 C25 I31 M14 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 39 pages
Date: 2014-08
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gmf:wpaper:2014-16

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