The Effect of Ageing, Gender and Environmental Problems in Subjective Well-Being

Abstract

This paper studies the relationship of factors such as ageing, gender and environmental problems included in the quality of life (QoL) with the subjective well-being represented by the life satisfaction (LS) indicator of the citizens of 33 European countries. To do so, it uses the LS of a country’s citizens as the dependent variable; ageing, gender and environmental variables as independent variables; and other factors included in the QoL indicators and macroeconomic factors as control variables. Analysis uses data from the World Values Survey (WVS) and the European Values Study (EVS) for LS, from Eurostat for QoL indicators and World Bank for macroeconomic indicators. The values of LS have been treated based on the individual data from WVS and EVS in percentages according to their levels by country, and we present four robust models (two logit model and two OLS model). The results show that arrears of people aged 65 and over are a relation of positive significative in models with low levels of LS. The opposite is true for the income of people aged 65 and over. On the other hand, pollution, grime or other environmental problems and inequality show an inverse relationship with life satisfaction in models with high levels of satisfaction and a positive relationship in models with low levels of satisfaction. Nonetheless, the study has also shown contradictions in the gender gap and poverty indicators that should be studied further.