| Abstract: |
In this paper, we analyse the life satisfaction of adolescents in transition
countries, comparing their life satisfaction to the life satisfaction of their
peers in non-transition countries. We find that at the start of transition,
ceteris paribus, the life satisfaction of adolescents in our sample of
transition countries did not differ much from the life satisfaction of
adolescents in our sample of non-transition countries. With the economic
crisis of the early nineties, however, the difference increased dramatically
but by the beginning of the 2000s this gap had again become fairly limited.
From that point, respondents’ health situation, their material wealth and
their school experience mattered much more than where they lived. Unlike the
literature on adults, we find that macro-variables cannot explain much of the
happiness gap between transition and non-transition countries. |