Economic policy and the level of self-perceived well-being: An international comparison

Ovaska, Tomi; Takashima, Ryo

doi:10.1016/j.socec.2005.11.054

Cited by 111 publications

(113 citation statements)

References 13 publications

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“…In addition, the aggregate cross-country studies by Helliwell (2006) and Ovaska and Takashima (2006) -one stressing government effectiveness, the other economic freedom -also suggest a clear positive impact of the quality of these two formal institutions on well-being. In contrast, the multi-level Extreme Bounds Analysis in Bjørnskov, Dreher and Fischer (2008a) shows very little support for any effects, positive or negative, of these two types of formal institutions.…”

Section: Happiness and Institutional Qualitymentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Turning to the effects of institutional quality and the rule of law, the recent crosscountry studies by Helliwell (2006), Helliwell and Huang (2006) and Ovaska and Takashima (2006) show rather clear support for positive effects of institutional quality, 6 and Fischer (2008a) finds that a stronger rule of law prevents market competition from reducing happiness. On the other hand, Bjørnskov, Dreher and Fischer (2008a) find almost no association between institutional quality and individual happiness in a crosssection of about 66'000 individuals from 66 countries.…”

Section: Happiness and Institutional Qualitymentioning

confidence: 99%

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Formal institutions and subjective well-being: Revisiting the cross-country evidence

Bjørnskov

Dreher

Fischer

2010

European Journal of Political Economy

210

133

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A long tradition in economics explores the association between the quality of formal institutions and economic performance. The literature on the relationship between such institutions and happiness is, however, rather limited. In this paper, we revisit the findings from recent cross-country studies on the institutions-happiness association. Our findings suggest that the conclusions reached by previous studies are fairly sensitive to the specific measure of 'happiness' used. In addition, the results indicate that the welfare effects of policies may differ across phases of a country's economic development. This bears important policy implications which we discuss in the concluding section of the paper.

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Section: Happiness and Institutional Qualitymentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Happiness and Institutional Qualitymentioning

confidence: 99%

Formal institutions and subjective well-being: Revisiting the cross-country evidence

Bjørnskov

Dreher

Fischer

2010

European Journal of Political Economy

210

133

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“…Institutions have also been proposed to affect life satisfaction (Helliwell, 2006;Ovaska and Takashima, 2006). In general, institutions provide the setting for successful market transactions, and ensure the functioning of facilities and administrations; furthermore, they enhance coping with the difficulties of daily life and provide (philosophical) guidelines for a better living.…”

Section: Institutional Factorsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Cross-country determinants of life satisfaction: exploring different determinants across groups in society

2007

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. We thank Stephen Lea and participants at the 30 th IAREP conference in Prague for comments on an earlier version and Gilles Winkler for excellent research assistance. AbstractThis paper explores a wide range of cross-country determinants of life satisfaction exploiting a database of 90,000 observations in 70 countries. We distinguish four groups of aggregate variables as potential determinants of satisfaction: political, economic, institutional, and human development and culture. We use ordered probit to investigate the importance of these variables on individual life satisfaction and test the robustness of our results with Extreme Bounds Analysis. The results show that only a small number of factors, such as openness, business climate, postcommunism, the number of chambers in parliament, Christian majority, and infant mortality robustly influence life satisfaction across countries while the importance of many variables suggested in the previous literature is not confirmed. This remains largely true when the analysis splits national populations according to gender, income and political orientation also. JEL Codes: I31, H10, H40

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“…A study by Frey & Stutzer (2000) on political participation suggests that the freedom to decide independently and participate in decisions raises SWB regardless of the actual outcome. Two studies have also found a positive effect of EF for small samples and a number of SWB measures (Ovaska & Takashima 2006;Gropper et al 2011). Akerlof & Shiller (2010) regarded the existence of irrational or boundedly rational behavior as an additional argument for more government intervention.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 96%

“…This study uses the Economic Freedom of the World Index from the Fraser Institute as a proxy for EF, which it is the most widely used indicator in economic research for this purpose. Data from the World Value Surveys (WVS) are used to derive three distinct happiness measures, similar to Bjørnskov et al (2010); Helliwell (2006) and Ovaska & Takashima (2006). In total, the results from 86 countries between 1990 and 2005 are included in the panel data set.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Who Benefits from Economic Freedom? Unraveling the Effect of Economic Freedom on Subjective Well-Being

Gehring

2013

World Development

112

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Abstract:Does economic freedom increase the utility of an average citizen? Public choice theory in particular has emphasized the shortcomings of governments and voting processes, and the advantages of relying on markets and individual decision making. However, an increasing amount of people are refusing to accept classical measures like GDP as signs of improvements in welfare. Data on subjective well-being allow economists to test if economic freedom really does improve the overall quality of life. However, existing studies have either failed to control for necessary control variables or lacked theoretical foundation. This paper explains economic and psychological reasons why the influence of economic freedom reaches beyond material well-being.Empirical results from a panel of 86 countries over the 1990-2005 period suggest that economic freedom indeed has a positive effect on happiness. Specifically legal security and property rights, access to sound money, and freedom from excessive regulation are significantly positive throughout the analysis. Regarding freedom to trade, the results show that particularly regulatory trade barriers have a significant negative effect. The positive effect depends on socio-demographic characteristics and is, on average, stronger for poorer countries and left-wing voters, and varies with age.JEL Codes: A13, D60, H11

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Economic policy and the level of self-perceived well-being: An international comparison

Cited by 111 publications

References 13 publications

Formal institutions and subjective well-being: Revisiting the cross-country evidence

Formal institutions and subjective well-being: Revisiting the cross-country evidence

Cross-country determinants of life satisfaction: exploring different determinants across groups in society

Who Benefits from Economic Freedom? Unraveling the Effect of Economic Freedom on Subjective Well-Being

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