The Nexus between Welfare State and Subjective Well-Being: A Multi-Level Assessment

This article explores the nexus between welfare state and subjective well-being in 20 countries drawing on data from the World Value Survey, wave 6. Multi-level mixed-effects restricted maximum likelihood approach that uses fixed-effects and random-effects techniques was applied. This article argues that national differences can explain little of the variations in citizens’ subjective well-being. In relatively developed welfare states, the effect of welfare typologies on individual-level subjective well-being is insignificant. However, there is a visible difference in subjective well-being between citizens living in and outside European/OECD welfare regimes. Moreover, while higher public social expenditure exerts higher aggregate subjective well-being, there is no connection between spending and individual-level subjective well-being. What is more, the net pension replacement rate does not affect aggregate and individual-level subjective well-being