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How Do Institutions Affect Happiness and Misery? A Tale of Two Tails

How Do Institutions Affect Happiness and Misery? A Tale of Two Tails We generalize the discussion of the relevant determinants of happiness by asking the question if the same factors, more specifically the same institutional factors, affect happiness and misery. Focusing on five formal and informal factors and applying a combined approach to estimating happiness in four categories – misery, moderately dissatisfied, moderately satisfied, and happy – allows us to estimate if factors shift or skew the distribution of subjective wellbeing. We find that legal quality and social trust shift the distribution, i.e. a smaller proportion of people in misery and a larger proportion of people with happiness; in contrast, democracy, religiosity, and voter turnout affect a certain tail of the distribution of wellbeing rather than influence both the happy and the unhappy at the same time. http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png Comparative Sociology Brill

How Do Institutions Affect Happiness and Misery? A Tale of Two Tails

Comparative Sociology , Volume 14 (3): 353 – Aug 11, 2015

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Publisher
Brill
Copyright
© Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, The Netherlands
ISSN
1569-1322
eISSN
1569-1330
DOI
10.1163/15691330-12341346
Publisher site
See Article on Publisher Site

Abstract

We generalize the discussion of the relevant determinants of happiness by asking the question if the same factors, more specifically the same institutional factors, affect happiness and misery. Focusing on five formal and informal factors and applying a combined approach to estimating happiness in four categories – misery, moderately dissatisfied, moderately satisfied, and happy – allows us to estimate if factors shift or skew the distribution of subjective wellbeing. We find that legal quality and social trust shift the distribution, i.e. a smaller proportion of people in misery and a larger proportion of people with happiness; in contrast, democracy, religiosity, and voter turnout affect a certain tail of the distribution of wellbeing rather than influence both the happy and the unhappy at the same time.

Journal

Comparative SociologyBrill

Published: Aug 11, 2015

Keywords: subjective wellbeing; happiness; misery; institutions

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