Economics of happiness: the case of post-communist countries
| Author: | Bc. Miroslava Mičáková |
|---|---|
| Year: | 2012 - summer |
| Leaders: | Tomáš Janotík MSc. |
| Consultants: | |
| Work type: | Bachelors |
| Language: | English |
| Pages: | 67 |
| Awards and prizes: | |
| Link: | |
| Abstract: | This thesis analyses the so-called\iron curtain of unhappiness"- the gap between former communist countries andWestern Europe. In our analysis, we focused on a group of 8 post-communist countries which became members of the European Union in 2004. Despite recent advancements, these countries report strikingly low levels of life satisfaction. Our aim was to nd an answer to the following key questions: Why are they unhappy? We nd that this is partly the legacy of communism and also the result of turbulent transition. Analysing the determinants of life satisfaction using a sample of 8616 individuals and comparing our results to studies examining mostly Western European countries, we nd that the e ect of numerous determinants which have been found to signi cantly in uence life satisfaction in Western nations carries over to post-communist countries as well. Most of the determinants we examined showed to be signi cant. Based on the analysis of individual countries, we conclude that job satisfaction and income level have the highest impact on individual life satisfaction in post-communist countries. |
| Downloadable: | Bachelor Theses of Micakova |
