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Is It Culture or Democracy? The Impact of Democracy and Culture on Happiness

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Abstract

We analyze the relation between democracy and perceived subjective well-being while controlling for other relevant determinants such as culture measured by languages. We conduct a cross-national analysis covering 28 countries using data from the 1998 International Social Survey Programme. Contrasting existing empirical evidence, we observe a significant positive relationship between democracy and happiness even when controlling for income and culture measured by language and religion. The effect of democracy on happiness is stronger in countries with an established democratic tradition.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. FAA-HSG, University of St. Gallen, Guisanstrasse 92, 9010 , St. Gallen, Switzerland

    David Dorn & Alfonso Sousa-Poza

  2. LSE-STICERD, London School of Economics, London, United Kingdom

    Justina A.V. Fischer

  3. SIAW-HSG, CESifo and Leopoldina, University of St. Gallen , St. Gallen, Switzerland

    Gebhard Kirchgässner

Authors
  1. David Dorn
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  2. Justina A.V. Fischer
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  3. Gebhard Kirchgässner
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  4. Alfonso Sousa-Poza
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Alfonso Sousa-Poza.

Additional information

Earlier versions of this paper were presented at the Workshop on Happiness, Economics and Interpersonal Relationships (4/12/2004), the International Conference of Panel Data Users in Switzerland (26/02/2005), the American Public Choice Society Conference (10/03/2005), the Annual Conference of the Swiss Society for Statistics and Economics (17/03/2005), and the European Public Choice Society Conference (3/04/2005). We would like to thank conference participants and particularly Alois Stutzer for helpful comments.

We thank the Swiss National Science Foundation for financial support (Grant-No. 5004-58524).

Appendix

Appendix

TABLE A.I Democracy index levels in 28 countries
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TABLE A.II Results comprehensive model
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TABLE A.III Definition of variables
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Dorn, D., Fischer, J.A., Kirchgässner, G. et al. Is It Culture or Democracy? The Impact of Democracy and Culture on Happiness. Soc Indic Res 82, 505–526 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11205-006-9048-4

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11205-006-9048-4

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