文章基本信息

标题：Is Happiness a Predictor of Election Results?
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作者：George Ward
期刊名称：CEP Discussion Paper
出版年度：2015
卷号：2015
语种：English
出版社：Centre for Economic Performance
摘要：Is it in politicians' interest to focus policy on subjective well-being (SWB)? Many governments and international organisations have recently begun to measure progress at least partly in terms of the population's SWB or "happiness". This paper investigates the extent to which citizens themselves judge national success in such terms. Using cross-country panel data, the analysis shows that the electoral fate of governing parties is associated not only with the state of the macroeconomy—as a substantial literature on 'economic voting' suggests—but also with the electorate's wider well-being. A country's aggregate level of SWB is able to account for more of the variance in government vote share than standard macroeconomic variables. This is consistent with a simple political agency model, and has implications for the incentives faced by politicians to act in the interests of voters.
关键词：Subjective well-being;political agency;elections