Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/51639 
Year of Publication: 
2011
Series/Report no.: 
IZA Discussion Papers No. 5647
Publisher: 
Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA), Bonn
Abstract: 
This paper analyses whether the different powers and resources at the disposal of local and regional governments across Europe deliver greater satisfaction with political institutions and lead to greater personal happiness. The analysis uses microdata from the four available waves of the European social survey (2002, 2004, 2006 and 2008), including more than 160,000 observations of individuals living in 29 European countries. Our results reveal that political and fiscal decentralization have a positive and significant effect on individuals' overall happiness. Fiscal decentralization also exerts a significant effect on the level of satisfaction with political and economic institutions and with the education and health systems, whereas the effect of political decentralization on these variables is more limited. The results show that citizens seem to be happier with the actual capacity of their local governments to deliver than with the general principle that they can have a say on their daily politics and policies.
Subjects: 
happiness
well-being
satisfaction
fiscal and political decentralization
Europe
JEL: 
H11
H77
Persistent Identifier of the first edition: 
Document Type: 
Working Paper

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