ResearchingResearching QualityQuality of Life in Europe:of Life in Europe:A A DecadeDecade of Progressof Progress

HeinzHeinz--Herbert Noll Herbert Noll ZUMA ZUMA -- Centre Centre forfor SurveySurvey Research and Research and MethodologyMethodologyMannheimMannheim

ECSR Conference "Comparative European Studies - Assessing 10 Years of Sociological Research 1995-2005

Paris, November 25-26, 2005

Quality of Life

! normative conceptualisation of the ‚good life andsociety‘

! goal of societal development in postindustrialsocieties

Characteristics and Ambiguities of the ‚QoL‘ -Concept" multidimensional rather than unidimensional

" different from wealth and material standard of living

# either in the sense of going beyond material wealth by including alsoimmaterial and collective components like freedom, equity, socialcapital, self-fulfillment, happiness etc.

# or in the sense of a contradiction to material wealth, emphasizingpost-materialist, critical views of the affluent society (limits to growth,ecological concerns etc.)

" focussing on the ‚good life‘ of individuals and / or the „good society“

" covering objective living conditions and / or subjective well-being

Source: P. Schyns 2003

Key Questions of Research on Subjective Well-Being:

General:

" what are the components of and how to model SWB (overall; domain-specific)?

" is SWB a state or a trait (e.g. set-point theory)?

" what are the causes and correlates of SWB?

Comparative European Research

" what are the crossnational differences in SBW (levels, changes)?

" are there specific patterns of country differences?

" how are country differences to be explained?

" to which extent may causes and correlates of SWB be generalised across countries?

Richard Layard: Happiness - Lessons From a New Science. The Penguin Press 2005

Numerous Publications in Recent Decade, e.g.

Alber/Fahey 2004: Perceptions of living conditions in an enlarged Europe. Argyle 1999: Causes and Correlates of Happiness.Blanchflower/Oswald 2000: Well-Being Over Time in Britain and the USABjornskov et al. 2005: What Buys Happiness? Analyzing Trends in Subjective Well-Being in 15 European Countries.Böhnke 2005: Life satisfaction, happiness and sense of belonging. Christoph/Noll 2003: Subjective Well-Being in the European Union during the 1990s. Clark et al. 2004: Heterogeneity in Reported Well-Being: Evidence From Twelve European Countries. Delhey 2004 : Life satisfaction in an enlarged Europe. Diener, et.al. 1999: Subjective Well-Being: Three Decades of Progress.Donovan/Halpern 2002: Life Satisfaction: the state of knowledge and implications for government.Duncan 2005: What do we mean by “Happiness”? The relevance of subjective wellbeing to social policyEasterlin 2001. Why rising incomes makes us no happierFrey/Stutzer 2002: Happiness and EconomicsGasper 2004: Subjective and Objective Well-Being in Relation to Economic Inputs: Puzzles and Responses. Gough, Ian (2003): Human Well-Being: Bridging Objective and Subjective Approaches. Hagerty/Veenhoven 2003: Wealth and Happiness revisited. Growing wealth of nations does go with greater happiness. Hayo/Seifert 2002: Subjective Economic Well-being in Eastern Europe. Headey/Muffels / Wooden 2004: Money doesn´t buy happiness – or does it? Inglehart/Klingemann2000: Genes, Culture, Democracy, and Happiness.Kahnemann/Diener/Schwarz 1999: Well-Being: The Foundations of Hedonic Psychology. Lane 1996: Quality of Life and Quality of Persons: A New Role for Government?Offer 1996: In Pursuit of the Quality of Life. Rose 2003: Health, Money and Wellbeing. Subjective Responses to Post-Soviet TransformationSanfey/Teksoz 2005 : Does transition make you happy ?Schyns 2003: Income and life satisfaction - A cross-national and longitudinal studyVan Praag / Ferrer-I-Carbonell 2004: Happiness Quantified. A Satisfaction Calculus Approach. Veenhoven 2005: Is Life Getting Better? How long and happy people live in modern society.

Reports in: The Wall Street Journal, New York Times, Time Magazin, BBC, Times, Der Spiegel, DIE ZEIT etc.

RecentBoom in

SWB Research

Survey-Data for Comparative European Quality of Life Research

" Eurobarometer - EU Commission

- since 1973 Standard EB + Central and Eastern EB +CCEB.

" European Community Household Panel – Eurostat

- 1994 – 2001; 1994 EU-12 + Austria, Finland (since 1995/96)

" European Values Study

- 3 waves of data collection: 1981; 1990; 1999/2000 (33 countries)

" European Social Survey

- since 2002/2003; round 2 = 25 countries;

Additonal information in rotating modules:

Wave 2: Family Work and Well-beingWave 3: Personal and Social Well-being

" European Foundation's "Quality of Life Survey"

- 2003; 28 Countries (EU 25 + current CC) - not yet available for public use

European Social Survey

Differences in Survey Methodology, e.g.

" Question Wording, e.g. Eurobarometer „satisfied with life you lead“

" Scales Used

- Eurobarometer: 1-4; EVS: 1-10; ESS: 0-10

" Sampling Procedures, etc.

Life Satisfaction - EVS 1999/2000

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

UkraineRussia

BelarusLithuaniaRomania

LatviaBulgariaHungaryEstonia

SlovakiaPolandGreeceCroatiaFrance

PortugalCzech Rep

SpainItaly

E. GermanySlovenia

Gt. BritainBelgium

W. GermanySweden

LuxembourgNetherlands

FinlandNth Ireland

AustriaIcelandIreland

MaltaDenmark

Others

NMS

EU 15

Scale: 1 = Extremely dissatisfied, 10 = Extremely satisfied

Life Satisfaction - Change Across Time% very / fairly satisfied

0,0

10,0

20,0

30,0

40,0

50,0

60,0

70,0

80,0

90,0

100,0

1973

1975

1977

1979

1981

1983

1985

1987

1989

1991

1993

1995

1997

1999

2001

2003

1 France 2 BELGIUM 3 NETHERLANDS Germany 5 ITALY 6 LUXEMBOURG

7 DENMARK 8 IRELAND United Kindom 11 GREECE 12 SPAIN 13 PORTUGAL

Database: Eurobarometer

Figure 1: Development of General Life Satisfaction in the EU.Source: Eurobarometer Studies Between 1991 and 2000

Social-Democratic (Nordic) Conservative (Central A)

2.0

2.5

3.0

3.5

4.0

1991 1994 1997 2000

Mea

n (

1=N

ot

at a

ll sa

tisf

ied

; 4=

Ver

y sa

tisf

ied

)

FIN S DK EU-Average

2.0

2.5

3.0

3.5

4.0

1991 1994 1997 2000

Mea

n (

1=N

ot

at a

ll sa

tisf

ied

; 4=

Ver

y sa

tisf

ied

)

NL AUS BF D-W DD-E EU-Average

Liberal (Central B) Rudimentary (Southern)

2.0

2.5

3.0

3.5

4.0

1991 1994 1997 2000

Mea

n (

1=N

ot

at a

ll sa

tisf

ied

; 4=

Ver

y sa

tisf

ied

)

IRL UK EU-Average

2.0

2.5

3.0

3.5

4.0

1991 1994 1997 2000

Mea

n (

1=N

ot

at a

ll sa

tisf

ied

; 4=

Ver

y sa

tisf

ied

)

E I P GR EU-Average

Source: B. Christoph, H.-H. Noll: Subjective Well-being in the Euro-pean Union During the 1990ies. Social Indicators Research, Vol. 64, 2003: 521-546

Why are the Belgians so much happier than the French …and why are the Dutch so much happier than the Germans?

Levels of Explanation:

- aggregate level characteristics of societies: e.g. GDP, Income inequality, Welfare State Type,Health Care System, Cultural Traits, Values etc.

- individual level characteristics (objective conditions; subjective perceptions): e.g. income,employment situation, family status, health status, housing conditions, age etc.

- combination of both

Methodological Concerns:

- differences in SWB might reflect language differences (+ other problems of equivalence anddata comparability)

- differences in SWB might be due to specificies in response behavior

Source:

J. Delhey 2004 $$ $

Research on Patterns, Causes and Correlates of SWBe.g.

- Age and Sex differences

- Income differences

- Educational differences

- Cultural, religous differences

- Life course patterns

- Impact of life events, e.g. unemployment, marriage, divorce, retirement, health impairments

- Effects of institutional backgrounds

SWB - Causes and Correlates

Example Income

! 4 Perspectives:

- Within Nation Correlations - Crossectional

- Between-Nation Differences - Crossectional

- Income Change Individual Level Across Life Time

- Income Change National Level Across Time

23

45

67

89

10P

redi

cted

val

ues

on s

cale

0 -

10

0 2000 4000 6000 8000 10000EURO

Life Satisfaction by Household-Income* – Germany 2004

* Equivalised HH-Income, modified OECD ScaleDatabase: SOEP

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

EU

15

NM

S

Luxe

mbo

urg

Irel

and

Den

mar

k

Net

herla

nds

Aus

tria

Bel

gium

Sw

eden UK

Fra

nce

Fin

land

Ger

man

y

Ital

y

Spa

in

Cyp

rus

Por

tuga

l

Mal

ta

Slo

veni

a

Gre

ece

Cze

ch R

epub

lic

Hun

gary

Slo

vaki

a

Pol

and

Est

onia

Lith

uani

a

Latv

ia

Bul

garia

Rom

ania

Tur

key

life

satis

fact

ion

bottom quartile

2nd quartile

3rd quartile

top quartlie

Life Satisfaction by HH-Income

Source: P. Böhnke (2005): Life satisfaction, happiness and sense of belonging. Luxembourg.

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

10

0 5000 10000 15000 20000 25000 30000 35000 40000 45000 50000 55000

GDP per capita 2000

Lif

e sa

tisf

acti

on

200

0

L

M

HR

RUS

B

F

HU

CZ

UA

BG

GRPL

BY

EST

ES

SLO

IRLDK

FIN

S

A

D

SK

P

IS

GB

Between-Nation Differences:Life Satisfaction (EVS) by GDP per Capita in PPP

0

50

100

150

200

250

300

350

400

1973

1974

1975

1976

1977

1978

1979

1980

1981

1982

1983

1984

1985

1986

1987

1988

1989

1990

1991

1992

1993

1994

1995

1996

1997

1998

1999

2000

2001

2002

2003

2004

1973

=10

0

GDP/capita

Life Satisfaction

France

Ireland

Database:Eurobarometer; OECD

Income Change National Level

0,0

50,0

100,0

150,0

200,0

250,0

300,0

350,0

400,0

1973

1974

1975

1976

1977

1978

1979

1980

1981

1982

1983

1984

1985

1986

1987

1988

1989

1990

1991

1992

1993

1994

1995

1996

1997

1998

1999

2000

2001

2002

2003

2004

1973

=10

0

GDP/capita

Life Satisfaction

80,0

90,0

100,0

110,0

120,0

130,0

140,0

150,0

160,0

170,0

180,0

1981 1982 1983 1984 1985 1986 1987 1988 1989 1990 1991 1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004

1981

=10

0

GDP/capita

Life Satisfaction

Greece

80

90

100

110

120

130

140

150

160

170

180

1985 1986 1987 1988 1989 1990 1991 1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004

1985

=10

0 GDP/capita

Life Satisfaction

Portugal

Database:Eurobarometer; OECD

Income Change Individual Level

does SWB increase with growing income?

– yes, but ...

- effect usually only temporary

- effect stronger at lower income levels (diminishing marginal returns)

- relative income growth more important than absolute

Two processes at work:

1) ! mechanism of rising aspirations and expectations: the more we getthe more we want

or …! ‘hedonic treadmill’: more and more income and material wealth isrequested to maintain the same level of SWB (at least diminishingmarginal returns of income and material wealth)

2) ! alternative explanation: it is not average absolute income growththat matters most, but relative improvements compared to standards ofcomparison (e.g. Easterlin Hypothesis)

! only above average, friends‘, neighbours‘, colleagues‘ income growthleads to increase in SWB

Why don’t we get happier across time, when we have more?

A Decade of Progress?

- Steep Career of Quality of Life Concept in Science and Policy Making

- Significant Improvements in Data Availability

- longitudinal data sets, e.g. household panels

- cross national / cultural data sets

- Progress in science based as well as policy driven social monitoring and reporting

- Booming Interest in SWB / Happiness Research

- Enormous Progress in Empirical Comparative Research

(e.g. mapping of SWB and other components of QoL; explanations of countrydifferences, test of associations in different settings )

- ...and as a Result also in General Knowledge and Theory

! More Research needed ...e.g. SWB:

- dynamics of adaptation processes- standards of comparison- interplay of personality and external factors