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
- Freedom to make life choices
- Our Classification
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-
- Remarks
- Source: Gallup World Poll Binary responses assumed.
- Distribution
- M=0,71 SD=0,15
- Related specification variables
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-
- Operationalization
- National average of self-reports for the question, "Are you satisfied or dissatisfied with your freedom to choose what you do with your life?"
1: Yes
0: No
Observed Relation with Happiness
- Without country fixed effects
b controls for:
- democratic quality
- delivery quality
- log GDP per capita
- healthy life expectancy
- generosity
- social support
- year fixed effects
Similar patterns are obtained when b additionally controls for:
- Regional fixed effects
A similar result is also obtained when a regression is conducted for 2005-2012 averages at the country level without regional fixed effects.
b controls for:
- democratic quality
- delivery quality
- log GDP per capita
- healthy life expectancy
- generosity
- social support
- year fixed effects
- regional fixed effects
b controls for:
- Confidence in the national government (Gallup)
- Logged GDP
- Democratic quality
- Delivery quality
- Country fixed effects
- Year fixed effects
- Freedom to make life choices
- Generosity
- Social support
Similar results are obtained when some controls are removed.
In sum: Freedom to make life choices has a significant positive effect on life satisfaction in all model specifications except for one.