With or Without You? Measuring the Quality of Relational Life Throughout the World

Luca Stanca

No 144, Working Papers from University of Milano-Bicocca, Department of Economics

Abstract: This paper proposes a new method for the measurement of the quality of relational life. Building on the recent literature on the determinants of subjective well-being, we use implicit valuations estimated from microeconometric life-satisfaction equations to weigh and aggregate scores on several dimensions of relational life. We apply the proposed method to a large sample of individuals from 82 countries, to construct indicators that focus on three dimensions of interpersonal relations: friends, family, and society. We use the constructed indicators to compare the quality of relational life across countries throughout the world and to explore its determinants at individual and country level. Overall, the results indicate that, ceteris paribus, better economic conditions are associated with higher quality of interpersonal relationships.

Keywords: subjective well-being; relational capital; quality of life (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: A13 D6 I31 Z13 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 29 pages
Date: 2008-07, Revised 2008-07
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-hap and nep-ltv
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

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http://repec.dems.unimib.it/repec/pdf/mibwpaper144.pdf First version, 2008 (application/pdf)

Related works:
Journal Article: With or without you? Measuring the quality of relational life throughout the world (2009)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:mib:wpaper:144

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