| Abstract: |
This paper explores a wide range of cross-country determinants of life
satisfaction exploiting a database of 90,000 observations in 70 countries. We
distinguish four groups of aggregate variables as potential determinants of
satisfaction: political, economic, institutional, and human development and
culture. We use ordered probit to investigate the importance of these
variables on individual life satisfaction and test the robustness of our
results with Extreme Bounds Analysis. The results show that only a small
number of factors, such as openness, business climate, postcommunism, the
number of chambers in parliament, Christian majority, and infant mortality
robustly influence life satisfaction across countries while the importance of
many variables suggested in the previous literature is not confirmed. This
remains largely true when the analysis splits national populations according
to gender, income and political orientation also. |