Abstract
There is no agreement in social sciences on the relationship between the objective and subjective side of the quality of life. The survey of Eurobarometer 72.1 conducted in 2009 provided data on different subjective and objective indicators of financial situation. Correlation analyses revealed, that linkages between them were not strong. A great amount of study examined the connections between financial situation and overall feeling of happiness. This study found that the context of the questions influences the magnitude of the effects of material conditions on subjective well-being. The satisfaction with financial situation explained more than twice of the variance of happiness in the Euraboramoter sample—whose main topic was inequalities- than in the fifth wave of the World Values Surveys sample- whose questions were more diverse. Multiple regression analyses indicated that there are differences between countries in the magnitude of the effects of material conditions on subjective well-being. This effect is smaller in the more postmaterialist countries.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Aallardt, E. (1986). Having, loving, being: An alternative to the Swedish model of welfare research. The Swedish approach to welfare research. In M. Nussbaum & A. Sen (Eds.), The quality of life (pp. 88–95). Oxford: Clarendon Press.
Ahuvia, A. C., & Friedman, D. (1998). Income, consumption and subjective well-being: Toward a composite macromarketing model. Journal of Macromarketing, 18, 153–168.
Andrews, F. M., & Withey, S. B. (1976). Social indicators of well-being: America’s perception of life quality. New York: Plenum Press.
Buhmann, B., Rainwater, L., Schmaus, G., & Smeeding, T. M. (1988). Equivalence scales, well-being, inequality, and poverty: Sensitivity estimates across ten countries, using the Luxembourg income study (LIS) database. Review of Income and Wealth, 34(2), 115–142.
Campbell, A., Converse, P. E., & Rodgers, W. L. (1976). The quality of American life. New York: Russell Sage Foundation.
Clark, A. E., & Oswald, A. J. (1994). Unhappiness and unemployment. Economic Journal, 104(424), 648–659.
Cummins, R. A. (1998). The second approximation to an international standard of life satisfaction. Social Indicators Research, 43, 307–334.
D’Ambrosio, C., & Frick, J. R. (2004) Subjective well-being and relative deprivation: An empirical link. Discussion Papers of DIW Berlin. Number 449.
Diener, E. (1984). Subjective well-being. Psychological Bulletin, 95(3), 542–575.
Diener, E., & Fujita, F. (1995). Resources, personal strivings, and subjective well-being: A nomothetic and idiographic approach. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 68, 926–935.
Diener, E., Horwitz, J., & Emmons, R. A. (1985). Happiness of the very wealthy. Social Indicators Research, 16, 263–274.
Diener, E., & Oishi, S. (2000). Money and happiness: Income and subjective well-being across nations. In E. Diener & E. Suh (Eds.), Culture and subjective well-being (pp. 185–218). Cambridge, London: MIT Press.
Diener, E., Sandvik, E., Pavot, W., & Fujita, F. (1993). The relationship between income and subjective well-being: Relative or absolute? Social Indicators Research, 28(3), 195–223.
Di Tella, R., MacMulloch, R. J., & Oswald, A. J. (2001). Preferences over inflation and employment: Evidence from surveys of happiness. American Economic Review, 91(1), 335–341.
Easterlin, R. A. (1974). Does economic growth improve the human lot? Some empirical evidence. In: P. A. David & M. W. Reder (Eds.), Nations and households in economic growth (pp. 89–125). New york: Academic Press.
Easterlin, R. (2003). Explaining happiness. PNAS, 10(19), 11176–11183.
Erikson, R. (1986). Descriptions of inequality: The Swedish approach to welfare research. In M. Nussbaum & A. Sen (Eds.), The quality of life (pp. 67–84). Oxford: Clarendon Press.
Fekete, Zs. (2006) Életminőség. Koncepciók, definíciók, kutatási irányok. In Utasi, Á. (Szerk.), A szubjektív életminőség és forrásai. Biztonság és kapcsolatok (pp. 277–309). Budapest: MTA Politikai Tudományok Intézete.
Frey, B., & Stutzer, A. (2002). Happiness and economics. Princeton and Oxford: Princeton University Press.
Hankiss, E. (1977). Érték és társadalom. Budapest: Magvető.
http://appsso.eurostat.ec.europa.eu/nui/show.do?dataset=ilc_di03&lang=en (2011.04.30).
Inglehart, R. (1997). Modernization and postmodernization: Cultural, economic and political change in 43 soceties. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
Merton, R. K. (1936). The unanticipated consequences of purposive social action. American Sociological Review, 1(6), 894–904.
Papacostas, A. (2009). Eurobarometer 72.1- poverty and social exclusion, social services, climate change, and the national economic situation and statistics, 2009. GESIS Data Archive, Cologne, Germany. ZA4975, data file, Ver 2.0.1. doi:10.4232/1.10129.
Pugno, M. (2004). The happiness paradox: A formal explanation from psycho-economics. http://reference.kfupm.edu.sa/content/h/a/2005_____the_happiness_paradox__a_formal_73246.pdf (2011.01.10).
Sagiv, L., & Schwartz, S. L. (2000). Value priorities and SWB: Direct relations and congruity effects. European Journal of Social Psychology, 30, 177–198.
Sen, A. (1979). Issues in the measurement of poverty. The Scandinavian Journal of Economics, 81(2), 285–307.
Tatarkiewicz, W. (1976). Analysis of happiness. Warszawa: PWN.
Utasi, Á. (2006) A minőségi élet feltételei és forrásai. In Utasi, Á. (szerk.), A szubjektív életminőség és forrásai. Biztonság és kapcsolatok (pp. 1–49). Budapest: MTA Politikai Tudományok Intézete.
Veenhoven, R. (1991). Is happiness relative? Social Indicators Research, 34, 33–68.
Veenhoven, R. (1996). The study of life-satisfaction. In W. E. Saris, R. Veenhoven, A. Scherpenzeel, & B. Bunting (Eds.), A comparative study of satisfaction with life in Europe (pp. 11–48). Budapest: Eötvös University Press.
Veenhoven, R., & Hagerty, M. (2006). Rising happiness in nations 1946–2004. Social Indicators, 79, 421–436.
WVS Five Wave Aggregated File 1981–2005 http://www.wvsevsdb.com/wvs/WVSData.jsp (2010.11.11.).
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Havasi, V. Financial Situation and Its Consequences on the Quality of Life in the EU Countries. Soc Indic Res 113, 17–35 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11205-011-9901-y
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11205-011-9901-y