Subjective and Objective Well-Being: Bridging the Gap

The aim of this paper is to investigate the relationship between multidimensional objective well-being and people’s happiness. Differing from previous economic studies, mainly focused on the effect of production and «one-variable» measures of socio-demographic factors on happiness, we account for the multidimensional nature of people’s objective well-being by resorting to a recently-created composite index of progress. It combines ten synthetic sub-indicators, each describing a respective dimension of objective well-being, computed by combining 57 elementary macroeconomic and social variables. Using a panel setting, our findings provide evidence of a positive and significant relationship between subjective and multidimensional objective well-being and its domains. Results suggest that improving the quality of the exogenous conditions that determine economic and social progress may contribute to enhancing the subjective well-being of individuals living in an area, which is the ultimate goal of welfare policies.

FERRARA Antonella;  NISTICÒ Rosanna;  LOMBARDO Rosetta; 

2020-12-01

FRANCO ANGELI EDIZIONI

JRC108245

1720-3929 (online),   

https://publications.jrc.ec.europa.eu/repository/handle/JRC108245,   

10.14650/94668 (online),