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This paper argues the relevance of analysing the origins of contextual effects to explain subjective well-being (SWB). Using the 2012 European Social Survey, the study applies social capital indicators to distinguish between-context and between-individual heterogeneity in three multilevel models of happiness and life satisfaction. Five indicators of social capital at individual and regional level are used to measure the trust, networks and norms dimensions of social capital. Random intercept and random slope hierarchical models are used to control for unexplained regional variability. The possibility of aggregated subjective perceptions conditioning, or interacting with, the effects of individual perceptions is also examined. The results show that the regional means of the social capital indicators are useful in explaining not only average levels of SWB (between-context heterogeneity) but also differences in the importance individuals attribute to their social capital (between-individual heterogeneity). The paper also proposes a research agenda to expand the frontier on contextual effects in the new science of well-being. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A cornerstone of well-being research is that the resource-rich are happier with their lives than the resource-poor and better positioned to cope with stressful life events. This paper addresses the role of various resources—human, economic, social, and psychological capital—in life satisfaction during the coronavirus pandemic, using panel data from Germany and the United Kingdom for 2020 and 2021. Cross-sectionally, we find life satisfaction to be clearly related to all these forms of capital, with psychological capital being the strongest predictor of life satisfaction. Longitudinally, the capital endowments in 2020 did not predict changes in life satisfaction within individuals from 2020 to 2021, except for psychological capital. Our results suggest two things: first, the unfolding pandemic did not heighten well-being inequalities; and second, weathering the pandemic required psychological resources in the first place. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It has been shown in past research that unemployment has a large negative impact on subjective well-being of individuals. In this paper, I explore whether and to what extent people with more social capital are sheltered from the harmful effects of unemployment. Using data from the German Socio-Economic Panel 1984–2004, I find that social capital is an important predictor of well-being levels, but there is no evidence that it moderates the effect of unemployment on well-being. Possible reasons for these findings are discussed, and suggestions for future research given. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates the effects of different dimensions of social capital (i.e., trust, social network and norms of civic engagement) on subjective well-being (SWB) at the individual level by attending to differences between the extremes of SWB distribution, that is, between the happiest and the unhappiest people. To this end, we use the 7th wave of the 2014 European Social Survey to run a quantile regression analysis to investigate whether any of these dimensions of social capital has a heterogeneous effect on the full distribution of well-being. We also perform a factor analysis to summarize the principal components of these three dimensions. Our results show that each dimension of social capital has a positive and significant correlation with SWB, but the different dimensions have a heterogeneous effect on the different quantiles of the well-being distribution. All of these dimensions of social capital have a stronger effect on the SWB of the least happy people in society than on the happiest. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper uses data from the 2012 Afrobarometer Surveys to empirically investigate the relationship between social capital and subjective well-being (SWB) in Ghana. Two measures of SWB are examined-absolute SWB and relative SWB. Results from OLS and ordered logit regressions are mixed. For instance, while generalized trust has no significant effect on either measure of SWB, interpersonal trust and institutional trust are significantly correlated with both measures. The results also suggest that being satisfied with the way democracy works in Ghana has a positive effect on SWB. Even though membership in a voluntary association is negatively correlated with absolute SWB, it has a positive effect on relative SWB. Finally, members of a religious association tend to report lower relative SWB. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper attempts to show how the quality of the social fabric of a community or nation affects its capacity to deal with crises and to develop human and natural resources in ways that maintain and sustainably improve subjective well-being. Three types of crisis will be used as examples. These include economic crises; transition and other institutional crises; and conflicts over sustainable resource use. The bulk of the new results in this paper relate to economic crises and institutional transitions, and shows that communities and nations with better social capital and trust respond to crises and transitions more happily and effectively. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper we analyze the non-instrumental dimension of social capital and its effects on subjective well-being. In the first part, we define the characteristics of production and consumption of relational goods. The second section analyses the influence of the different expressions of relational goods and social capital on individual subjective well-being. In the third, we test the explanatory power of this variable on the Easterlin's paradox using the results of a survey on individual social capital in Spain. The main findings from the empirical analysis for Spanish society allow us to strengthen the hypothesis. We found a weak explanatory capacity of income or educational level or instrumental dimensions of social capital (expert mobilization) while a strong link between expressions of relational goods (domestic mobilization, household stability, partnership, trust and security in the environment) was found. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Migration from a poorer country to a wealthier one often results in a lower relative economic status for the migrant (even when it increases their incomes in an 'absolute' sense)-and thus perhaps results also in a decrease in his/her happiness. By the same logic, migration from a wealthy country to a poorer one might bring a higher status position for the migrant and so might raise his/her happiness. This paper investigates happiness among migrants who move from northern European countries to Spain, Portugal, Greece and Cyprus, comparing them to stayers in the origin countries (Belgium, Switzerland, France, Germany, Britain, and the Netherlands). The analysis shows that migrants are less happy than stayers, in a bivariate comparison and a conventional regression model. A consideration of results from 'treatment models' and matching analyses suggests that the difference represents a decrease in happiness for the migrants (and not a difference in happiness prior to migration), contrary to an expectation rooted in an anticipated increase in economic status. Migrants have lower relative incomes than stayers; when relative income is controlled, the happiness disadvantage of migrants is smaller. Controlling additionally for absolute income does not lead to further change in that difference. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We investigate the extent to which bridging and bonding social capital as well as social trust and individuals' earnings interdependently affect self-reported happiness. The study is based on cross-sectional World Values Survey 2000 data on individuals from eight Central and Eastern European countries (CEECs). We identify high risk of regressor endogeneity and omitted variables bias in happiness regressions, and eliminate them using instrumental variables and an appropriate set of controls. The endogeneity issue has been generally overlooked in earlier studies. Our study therefore provides novel implications for the general discussion on the causal relationships between the five considered variables. Our results are also discussed in the specific context of socio-economic convergence processes currently taking place in CEECs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we seek to examine the effect of social comparisons and of social capital on life satisfaction over a sample of Latin American countries. We test if, through social influence and exposure, social capital is either an enhancer or appeaser of the effect of social comparisons of material conditions in life satisfaction. Using the Latinobarómetro Survey (2007) we find, contrary to the existing literature that, the better others perform in the material dimension, the happier the individual is. We also find that social capital is among the strongest correlates of individuals' life satisfaction. Our findings suggest that social contacts may enhance the effect of social comparisons, which is more intense for those who perform worse in their reference group. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores the relationship between social capital and happiness both in Europe as a whole, as well as in its four main geographical macro-regions-North, South, East and West-separately. We test the hypothesis of whether social capital, in its three-fold definition established by Coleman (Am J Sociol 94:S95-S120 )-trust, social interaction, and norms and sanctions-influences individual happiness across European countries and regions. The concept of social capital is further enriched by incorporating Putnam (Making democracy work-civic traditions in modern Italy. Princeton University Press, Princeton, ) and Olson (The rise and decline of nations-economic growth, stagflation, and social rigidities. Yale University Press, New Haven and London, ) type variables on associational activity. Using ordinal logistic regression analysis on data for 48,583 individuals from 25 European countries, we reach three main findings. First, social capital matters for happiness across the three dimensions considered. Second, the main drivers of the effects of social capital on happiness appear to be informal social interaction and general social, as well as institutional trust. And third, there are significant differences in how social capital interacts with happiness across different areas of Europe, with the connection being at is weakest in the Nordic countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

fter four decades of research, scholars of happiness continue to debate its causes. While it is generally agreed that a combination of internal and external factors play a role, predicting happiness well remains a challenge. Recent research has proposed that social capital may be a vital factor that has been overlooked. This paper attempts to address that omission. According to Coleman's () seminal work, three dimensions of social capital exist: (1) trust and obligations, (2) information channels, and (3) norms and sanctions. Using bootstrap hierarchical regression on data from the Canadian General Social Survey of Social Engagement Cycle 17 (2003), we identified blocks of social capital variables described by Coleman, as well as an additional factor of belongingness. Even after controlling for major demographic and individual characteristics, the majority of these blocks show significant relationships with happiness. Our findings support social capital as an important piece in predicting happiness. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using the German Socio-Economic Panel, we analyze the relevance of modeling social comparisons to determine their effect on subjective well-being. We find that it is important to model social comparisons in such a way that captures the sensitivity of individuals to proximity. The impact on subjective well-being differs depending on the manner in which proximity is modeled, revealing that the underlying processes in comparisons are not homogenous along the income distribution. Additionally, our results point out that social and cultural capital modify the effect of social comparisons and such modification depends on the sensitivity to proximity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examines the relationship between language proficiency and subjective well-being among the first-generation immigrants in Australia. To address endogeneity-related concerns, we use the age at arrival and country of origin as an instrument for English proficiency. Our results show that greater proficiency in English significantly improves self-reported mental health and life satisfaction. These impacts are pronounced among subgroups of males, highly educated individuals, and older immigrants who have lived in Australia for over 30 years. Our mediation analysis suggests that physical health is one of the most important channels through which immigrants' destination-language acquisition affects their subjective well-being. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The characteristics of neighbourhoods, their physical and social environment, have been shown to have profound effects on the individual well-being and happiness of their residents. In an effort to help design policies and action plans that enhance well-being in the district, our study seeks to understand how happiness levels among residents in a low-income neighbourhood in Spain are linked to their socio-demographic traits, individual health, relationships with the area, and community, as well as with the physical environment of the neighbourhood. The study is part of a project called "Educa-Pajarillos Sostenible". The project aims to improve the quality of life of the area's citizens by carrying out a series of actions. One of these actions is an eco-social map of happiness, which involves designing and applying a survey and which serves as a source of analysis for our research. An Ordered Choice Logit econometric model was applied to measure the effect of the happiness of demographic, neighbourhood environment, social capital, and socio-demographic characteristics. Results confirm the importance of variables related to the neighbourhood's social capital and physical environment as key elements in local residents' happiness. The findings also indicate that traditional indicators used to measure well-being, such as education or difficulty making ends meet, are not significant. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Individuals' life satisfaction varies widely across countries. Differences in income explain a large part of this variation, but not all. The purpose of this study is to identify the country-level determinants, in addition to income, that best explain life satisfaction, with the objective of understanding how a country's policies and developmental strategies may affect the well-being of its residents. To do so, we pool life satisfaction data and key economic, political, social, and environmental variables (including GDP per capita, unemployment rate, level of corruption, social capital, CO2 emissions and particulate matter (PM) concentrations) for a cross-section of countries to calculate the relative contribution of political, social, and environmental variables vis-à-vis economic factors to explain life satisfaction. Regression models indicate that religiosity, social capital, and pollution are among the strongest determinants of differences in life satisfaction. Employing a relative contribution analysis, we find that after individual characteristics, GDP is the most important predictor of life satisfaction, but that country fixed effects remain stubbornly important. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As the global population ages rapidly, from a positive aging view, promoting later life through sport participation has been recognized as strategies for maintaining and boosting the social and psychological health of older people. To better understand the role of sport participation among older adults, the primary purpose of the study was to explore the mediating role of social capital on the relationship between sport participation and happiness among older adults. A convenience sample of 208 pickleball participants aged from 50 to 83 years completed a survey. A level of pickleball participation was measured using Serious Leisure Inventory, social capital was measured by cognitive (i.e., feelings of trust and safety) and structural (i.e., community participation, neighborhood connections) social capital, and happiness was measured by a single item scale of general feelings of happiness. After controlling socio-demographic characteristics, results showed that (a) pickleball participation was significantly and positively predicted by general happiness, (b) pickleball participation was significantly and positively predicted by all three elements of social capital, (c) two elements of social capital (i.e., feelings of trust and safety, neighborhood connections) had a significant and positive mediating role on the relationship between pickleball participation and general happiness. We suggest that sport-based social capital intervention can add significant value to older adults' general happiness for successful aging. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We investigate whether the correlation of income and social capital with well-being changes in times of economic crisis. Both subjective well-being and social capital may decline during a crisis, and their correlation can change: if social capital becomes a scarce good, it may correlate more with well-being. Alternatively, people may find that in times of crisis other things matter more for well-being and its association with social capital should decrease. To account for these possibilities, we apply a Blinder–Oaxaca decomposition and regression analysis with interaction effects to European Social Survey data from 2006 to 2012. Our findings indicate that, after accounting for the decline of social capital, its correlation with well-being does not change over time. On the contrary, income becomes only temporarily more important for well-being. We conclude that in times of crisis, when material concerns are urgent, policy makers targeting recovery should account for the policy impacts on social capital. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article investigates average marginal effects of intra-urban, urban-remote and perceived spatial differences over time-framed happiness. The study is based on a self-report social survey conducted in Adana which includes three different time frames for happiness, namely at present (short-term), in the last week and in the last 4 weeks (global). Over which, the effects of objective, subjective and social spatial variables through socio-economic and social capital variables are measured using logistic regression models. Based on cognitive neuroscience research findings, the expectations are that perceived aspects of life are more likely related to short-term happiness and objective aspects of life are more likely related to global happiness. The analyses reveal that urban-remote difference is more likely related to higher global happiness; vehicle dependent-others difference is more likely related to higher happiness; perceived spatial factors are more likely related to short-term happiness; lower relative income and higher neighborhood inequality are more likely to decrease global happiness; the unemployed and retired urban residents are more likely to feel less happy and related to global happiness; personal characteristics and socio-economic factors are more likely related to one-week happiness. The implications suggest that policies should be towards the city retirees and the unemployeds who feel less happy, and intensive public transportation areas and their residents who are the most unhappy and more disturbed by air pollution. For policy implementation, we recommend that the authorities discuss the public transport, distance to services, air pollution and unemployment issues, and adopt the retirement adjustment law to eliminate the grievances in the pensions of the retirees. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While previous studies have established social capital as an important determinant of subjective well-being (SWB), the broader social context people are living in has not received much attention in terms of SWB. To address this issue, we propose the concept of social affiliation, measuring the feeling of belonging to the social whole, of being a respected and valued member of society. In contrast to standard concepts of social capital, social affiliation is not related to an individual’s direct environment (‘Gemeinschaft’), but concerns one’s relation to society (‘Gesellschaft’). Such a subjective evaluation of how an individual feels within a broader societal context is neither covered by traditional concepts of social capital nor by the concept of social cohesion which focuses on the macro level. A perception of oneself as living on the margins of society, of not being a respected member of society, is very likely to diminish subjective well-being. At the same time, it can be expected to not be completely unrelated to individual resources of social capital. Drawing on unique survey data from Japan, we analyze the triangle relationship between social capital, social affiliation and subjective well-being applying a structural equation model. Our results have two main implications. First, we show that social affiliation has an effect on subjective well-being that is independent from the effect of standard measures of social capital. Second, we find that social capital influences social affiliation, and thereby also has an indirect effect on subjective well-being. In terms of theory building our results suggest that social embeddedness has two elements which should be measured separately: a community dimension usually measured as social capital in terms of trust, personal networks and norms, and a societal dimension of being and feeling part of a ‘Gesellschaft’, measured as social affiliation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Can online social contacts replace the importance of real-life social connections in our pursuit of happiness? With the growing use of social network sites (SNSs), attention has been increasingly drawn to this topic. Our study empirically examines the effect of SNS use on happiness for different subgroups of young adults. More specifically, we examine whether the effect of SNSs on happiness is moderated by individual social capital, as measured in terms of frequency of social contacts and feelings of loneliness. Using Dutch data from the Longitudinal Internet Studies for the Social Sciences panel, we provide robust empirical evidence that there is, on average, no relationship between the amount of time spent on SNSs and happiness. However, we find a negative association between the numbers of hours spent on SNS and happiness for SNS users who feel socially disconnected and lonely. The results hold when we control for socio-demographic characteristics, trust, hours spent on other Internet sites and household income. Hence, SNSs are not a substitute for real-life social connections and, at most, complement them. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A growing number of studies have addressed how social capital is closely related to an individual's perceived happiness. However, most happiness studies have focused on individual-level social capital, which is based on an individual's subjective assessment of social capital gathered from social surveys. Considering that social capital was originally a collective concept, this study distinguished individual- and area-level aspects of social capital and their relationships in terms of their associations with perceived happiness. To this end, we employed multilevel mediation analysis using cross-sectional microdata from a nationwide Internet survey conducted in Japan ( N = 9523). We focused on four types of social capital: trust in neighbors, contacts with neighbors, bonding, and bridging. Based on the estimation results, we first confirmed that social capital at both the individual and area levels had a positive association with perceived happiness when using them separately as an independent variable. Second, we found that a substantial portion of the effect of area-level social capital on perceived happiness was mediated by individual-level social capital. This suggests that an individual's commitment to area-level social capital is required if a large portion of its potential benefits on perceived happiness are to materialize. Furthermore, we observed that the effects of area-level bonding and bridging on their individual-level measures were affected by several individual-level attributes, including personality traits. Overall, the results underscore the need for further investigation into the association between perceived happiness and social capital at different levels. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We exploit the cross-country differences in economic freedom to examine the link between the quality of institutions and subjective well-being. Using Veenhoven's happiness dataset, the evidence suggests countries with better economic institutions and higher level of economic freedom, captured by the security of property rights, open markets and more limited government, are significantly more likely to experience greater subjective well-being after controlling for structural confounders of national subjective well-being such as income, unemployment, inequality, social capital and life satisfaction. The effect of institutions on cross-national happiness is both significant and robust to different model specifications, estimation techniques and possible sources of endogeneity. Furthermore, our panel data analysis reveals that over time higher levels of economic freedom are associated with decreasing subjective well-being after controlling for state dependence and income. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although the positive associations between social capital, household income and life satisfaction are well documented, little is known about how income actually shapes the relation between structural social capital and life satisfaction. This study investigates the roles of economic condition in determining the relationships between life satisfaction and three aspects of structural social capital, namely network size, neighborhood interaction and social participation. This study uses a random sample of 6002 adults nested in 2365 families from three regions in China: Beijing, Shanghai and Guangdong-province and applies multilevel linear regression models. The results firstly show that household income and structural social capital are positively associated with life satisfaction. Further analyses on the interaction effects find that household income substantively reduces the association between a social network size and life satisfaction but increases the relationship between social participation and life satisfaction. In addition, the differences between families explain about 25 % unexplained variances of life satisfaction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using the data from the China Household Finance Survey in 2011, we study the relation between happiness and stockholding. We find that a household's propensity of investing in stocks or mutual funds, as well as household asset shares invested in stocks or mutual funds, is strongly associated with happiness. Moreover, empirical results suggest that among the three potential channels we propose, the association between happiness and stockholding is driven by trust (or social capital), rather than households' risk preference or optimism level. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study analyses the determinants of the most widely used indicators of subjective well-being (SWB), namely life satisfaction and happiness, within European regions. In particular, we assess to what extent these two measures are related to strictly economic factors or alternatively are driven by social and institutional settings. Our analyses extend the corresponding literature by (1) focusing on European regions instead of nations of the whole world and thus allowing for intra-national differences; (2) highlighting the impact of social capital considered in a broad manner covering general trust, institutional trust, associational activity and the close social ties; and (3) modelling possible spatial influences from the neighbouring regions by estimating a spatial error model. The results indicate that such spatial autocorrelations indeed exist and that the various social capital components are major impact factors alongside the conventional determinants health, religion and unemployment, but that income does not exhibit a statistically significant influence on the SWB of the European regions considered. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aims of this study were to investigate how much variance in happiness was attributable to household and administrative-area levels and to examine the associations between social capital at the individual, household, and administrative-area levels and happiness, while adjusting for various control variables at multiple levels. Data from the Seoul Welfare Panel Study (SWPS) beginning in 2008 and conducted by the Seoul Welfare Foundation were used for this study. This study used wave 1 of the SWPS (2008). The results showed that a relatively small percentage of happiness was attributed to the administrative-area level compared to the household level, which implies that a household context is more important for understanding the variation in individual happiness. The results also showed that individual level social capital variables including perceived helpfulness and volunteer work were positively associated with happiness. Perceived helpfulness and organizational participation at the household level were positively associated with happiness. However, no significant association could be found between administrative-area level social capital variables and happiness. The results indicate that different types of social capital at different levels may operate differently to happiness. The current study contributed to the empirical social capital literature by simultaneously considering the individual, household, and administrative-area levels and examining each one's association with happiness while controlling for various control variables at multiple levels. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although studies on the association between social capital and subjective well-being have been recently increasing many issues still remain unsolved. The purpose of this study is to investigate the association between various social capital dimensions both at the individual (political participation, network source, trust, and organizational participation) and area level (voting rate, trust, and organizational participation) and subjective well-being (happiness) using multilevel analysis while controlling for various control variables at multiple levels. Survey data was collected from December, 2010 to April, 2011 in Seoul, South Korea. The final sample was comprised of 4,585 respondents within all 25 administrative areas in Seoul. Results from the multilevel analysis revealed that all individual and area level (trust) social capital variables are positively associated with subjective happiness. Our findings also point to the need for more sophisticated studies with longitudinal datasets based on multilevel framework using instrumental variable analysis to clarify our knowledge regarding the effects of social capital on subjective well-being. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]