The geography of well-being

Abstract

We consider the economic and non-economic determinants of well-being across Europe and ask what level of geographical aggregation (for example, individual, regional or national) matters for individual well-being and whether the drivers of well-being differ within and between these different levels. Our results show a more heterogenous set of drivers for individual well-being across regions in Europe than previously described. Not only are individual-level effects significant, but so too are regional factors. In particular, absolute regional factors dominate the effect of an individual's position relative to their region for certain non-economic variables. The significance of these non-economic factors changes depending on the sample of countries considered, but in each case the regional effects dominate for those variables that are significant.