The Money–Happiness Relationship in Transition Countries: Evidence from Albania

Becchetti, Leonardo

doi:10.1007/s11300-010-0135-5

Cited by 9 publications

(5 citation statements)

References 30 publications

(25 reference statements)

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“…This literature has shown that, while relative income matters, positional effects do not fully crowd out the positive effect of personal income on individual well being. Furthermore, several studies have documented that an increase in the reference group income may become not necessarily bad news for individuals living (or perceiving to live) in socioeconomic environments characterized by high vertical mobility (Senik, 2004;Jiang et al, 2009;Becchetti and Savastano, 2009). The same literature has been extended to the role played by various inequality dimensions (income, weight) between partners and to that exerted by regional unemployment on the satisfaction of the unemployed (Clark, 2008 andClark et al 2009).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…When doing so, we obviously control whether the country relative effect persists after controlling for various types of standard reference group effects 1 . Our findings provide additional insights on the well known treadmill effects and Easterlin paradox.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The program has an annual budget in excess of 450 million euro and more than 4,000 partner institutions in 33 countries, more universities waiting to join. Around 2.5 million students have 1 The implication that an improvement in wellbeing occurred abroad may reduce life satisfaction of individuals in a given country is that wellbeing innovations which historically originate in a first pioneering country may generate protests and manifestations in others where individuals feel worse off until they can catch up. This argument may be supported by several historical anecdotes.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Beyond the Joneses: Inter-country income comparisons and happiness

Becchetti

Castriota

Corrado

et al. 2013

The Journal of Socio-Economics

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Our paper provides some novel evidence on the burgeoning literature on life satisfaction and relative comparisons by showing that in the last 30 years comparisons with the wellbeing of top income countries have generated progressively more negative feelings on a large sample of individuals in the Eurobarometer survey. The paper contributes in two main directions: (i) it shows that countries, and not just neighbors, can be reference groups; (ii) it documents a globalization effect by which distant countries become progressively closer and comparisons among them more intense and relevant. Our findings may be interpreted in support of the well known hypothesis that migratory decisions are affected by the gap in economic wellbeing between origin and destination country since they document that such gap affects individual life satisfaction.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Beyond the Joneses: Inter-country income comparisons and happiness

Becchetti

Castriota

Corrado

et al. 2013

The Journal of Socio-Economics

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“…Wealth also seems to play an important positive role in life satisfaction in transition economies. Namazie and Sanfey () find this relationship in a study of Kyrgyzstan, while Becchetti () uncovers it in a study of Albania.…”

Section: Literature Reviewmentioning

confidence: 94%

Human capital and life satisfaction in economic transition

Silver¹,

Caudill

Mixon

2016

Econ Transit

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This study explores the life satisfaction of Egyptians – with a particular focus on the impact of higher education on happiness – both before and after that country's Arab Spring of 2011. Ordered logit results point to positive and significant relationships between life satisfaction and both perceived high incomes and the human capital variable, good health, for the pre‐ and post‐Arab Spring periods in Egypt, thus confirming prior studies of transition economies. For a second human capital variable – secondary education – the results indicate a positive and significant relationship with happiness in pre‐Arab Spring Egypt, while that relationship for post‐Arab Spring Egypt is negative and significant. This particular finding is probably the result of the failure of educated Egyptians to achieve a better life despite their investments in human capital – due to the lack of opportunity that accompanied the failure of the country's Arab Spring to change the political and social environment.

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“…As a result, several studies have sought to identify characteristics associated with better or poorer tolerance of the economic and social changes brought by transition. For example, Becchetti () investigates the impact of money on happiness in Albania after transition and finds that the impact of money depends on the aspirations of the individual. Using survey data from three different years, beginning in early transition, Kalyuzhnova and Kambhampati () investigate the determinants of happiness in Kazakhstan, and find that dwelling size is positively associated with happiness and that ethnic Kazakhs are happier than Russians.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Happiness, religion and economic transition

Florea

Caudill

2013

Econ Transit

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In an important paper, Lelkes (2006) examines the impact of transition on happiness in Hungary using two Hungarian household survey datasets for the years 1992 and 1998. In particular, Lelkes examines the impact of religious behaviour on self-reported well-being. Using ordered logit models, Lelkes estimates and presents the marginal effect associated with membership in the highest 'fully satisfied' category, and finds that religious people have a consistently higher probability of being 'fully satisfied' than others. This effect is stable in the 1992 and 1998 samples. The goal of this article is to expand and extend Lelkes' earlier work in several ways. First, we use a different dataset. Second, we examine the effect of religious behaviour on well-being after transition not only for Hungary, but also for Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Poland and Slovakia. Third, unlike Lelkes, we have access to information indicating whether respondents report being financially better off after transition. With a different dataset, additional country samples, and a measure of financial well-being, we are able to confirm and extend Lelkes' finding that religious behaviour is associated with improved well-being after transition in all countries we examine.JEL classifications: P31, P36, Z12, Z13.

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The Money–Happiness Relationship in Transition Countries: Evidence from Albania

Abstract: Life satisfaction, Remittances, Subsidies, Transition countries, I30, C33, O15, P20,

Cited by 9 publications

References 30 publications

Beyond the Joneses: Inter-country income comparisons and happiness

Beyond the Joneses: Inter-country income comparisons and happiness

Human capital and life satisfaction in economic transition

Happiness, religion and economic transition

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