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Correlational findings

Study Bjornskov et al. (2008a): study ZZ 1997

Public
18+ aged, general public, 66 nations, 1997-2001
Sample
Respondents
N = 62295
Non Response
Assessment
Interview: face-to-face

Correlate

Authors's Label
Government consumption
Our Classification
Remarks
Source: Penn World Tables, Mark 6.1 (Heston, Summers and Aten, 2002)
Distribution
Range: 5,3% - 50%, Average: 17%, SD: 2,52
Operationalization
Government consumption in % GDP

Observed Relation with Happiness

Happiness Measure Statistics Elaboration / Remarks O-SLW-c-sq-n-10-a r = -.28 p < .05 Individual happiness (not average!) by % government consumption O-SLW-c-sq-n-10-a Beta = -.01 p < .05 Beta controlled for:
- nation characteristics
  - infant mortality
  - years of independence
  - religiousness
  - bi-cameral system (vs not)
  - openness of the economy
  - post-communist (vs not)
  - part of the world
- individual characteristics
  - age
  - gender
  - education
  - marital status
  - occupation
  - income
  - religion
  - voluntary work O-SLW-c-sq-n-10-a Beta = Beta unaffected by additional control for indicators of decentralization in nation:
- fiscal decentralization (expenditure)
- fiscal decentralization (revenue)
- transfer dependency (%)
- own tax source (%)
- administrative decentralization
- residual power
- local autonomy
- interaction of government consumption with these indicators