Happiness in Transition: An Empirical Study on Eastern Europe

This paper analyzes the determinants of life satisfaction in a pooled data set of representative individual survey data from seven East European countries collected during the early phase of economic and political transformation using ordered logit models. Those core sociodemographic and economic variables known to be relevant from studies on the US and West European countries (u-shaped age effect, positive income effect, negative effect of unemployment, positive education effect, positive marriage effect) have a similar impact on happiness in the countries of Eastern Europe under a condition of dramatic economic, political, and social change. In addition, rural dwellers and churchgoers experience relatively greater life satisfaction. Cross-country differences in aggregate happiness can be explained to a large extent by unemployment rates and the human development index (HDI). JEL: D60, I31, P2