Macroeconomics and Life Satisfaction: Revisiting the “Misery Index”

@article{Welsch2007MacroeconomicsAL,
  title={Macroeconomics and Life Satisfaction: Revisiting the “Misery Index”},
  author={Heinz Welsch},
  journal={Journal of Applied Economics},
  year={2007},
  volume={10},
  pages={237 - 251}
}
  • H. Welsch
  • Published 2007
  • Economics
  • Journal of Applied Economics
Using data from surveys of life satisfaction, evidence has been presented that European citizens' subjective well-being is inversely related to inflation and unemployment. Motivated by the “Barro Misery Index”, this paper reconsiders the relationship between macroeconomics and subjective well-being by including the growth rate and the long-term interest rate as additional variables in life satisfaction regressions. The paper finds that people care about growth and employment on the one hand and… Expand
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