Can Governments Boost People's Sense of Well-Being? The Impact of Selected Labour Market and Health Policies on Life Satisfaction

Romina Boarini, Margherita Comola (), Femke Keulenaer, Robert Manchin and Conal Smith

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Abstract: There is strong evidence that subjective well-being measures capture in a reliable way specific components of well-being that other non-subjective measures miss. The question of whether subjective well-being is policy amenable is however still largely unexplored in the research. This paper sheds some light on this issue, by looking at the impact of selected labour market and health policies on subjective well-being, using well-being data from the Gallup World Poll on the 34 OECD countries. The paper finds that the generosity of unemployment benefits and the strictness employment protection legislation affects positively life satisfaction, while out-of-pocket health expenses significantly reduce subjective well-being.

Keywords: Happiness; Health policy; Labour market policy; Life satisfaction; Subjective well-being (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2013-10
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (3)

Published in Social Indicators Research, 2013, 114 (1), pp.105-120. ⟨10.1007/s11205-013-0386-8⟩

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Journal Article: Can Governments Boost People’s Sense of Well-Being? The Impact of Selected Labour Market and Health Policies on Life Satisfaction (2013)
Working Paper: Can Governments Boost People's Sense of Well-Being? The Impact of Selected Labour Market and Health Policies on Life Satisfaction (2013)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:hal:journl:hal-00972050

DOI: 10.1007/s11205-013-0386-8

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