Study Helliwell et al. (2014b): study ZZ World samples 2005
- Public:
- 15+ years, general public, 157 countries, 2005-2012
- Survey name:
- Gallup poll
- Sample:
- Respondents:
- N = 900000
- Non Response:
- Assessment:
- Interview: face-to-face
Correlate
- Authors's label
- Democratic quality
- Our Classification
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-
- Operationalization
- a: Voice and accountablity (Expert estimates of the extent to which a country's citizens are able to participate in selecting their government, as well as freedom of expression, freedom of association, and a free media.)
b: Political stability (Expert estimates of the likelihood of political instability and/or politically-motivated violence, including terrorism.)
Democratic quality = (a+b)/2
Observed Relation with Happiness
- Without country fixed effects
b controls for:
- delivery quality
- year fixed effects
Similar patterns are obtained when b additionally controls for:
- Log GDP
- Healthy life expectancy
- Freedom to make life choices
- Generosity
- Social support
- Regional fixed effects
A similar result is also obtained when a regression is conducted for 2005-2012 averages at the country level.
In sum: Democratic quality has a significantly positive effect on life satisfaction for countries with high delivery quality (greater than 0).
b controls for:
- Confidence in the national government (Gallup)
- Logged GDP
- Delivery quality
- Country fixed effects
- Year fixed effects
Similar results are obtained when b additionally controls for:
- Healthy life expectancy
- Freedom to make life choices
- Generosity
- Social support