Are Economic and Objective Indicators Sufficient to Determine Life Satisfaction? An Empirical Investigation

Abstract

Human values and experiences have generally been ignored in determining the life satisfaction of citizens. This paper empirically tests the relationship between the dependent variable of life satisfaction with explanatory variables like income, health, educational level, religiosity, and democratic values. The data is taken from the World Value Survey with a sufficiently large sample size. The analyses of descriptive statistics and Spearman's rank-order correlation is followed by the main analysis within the framework of the Ordered Logistic Regression model. The results reassert the importance of values and human experiences in policymaking.