The Great Recession of 2008 from the Subjective Well-being Perspective: Implication for Policy-making in the EU Countries

Literature review implies that despite the Great Recession of 2008 the economic policy paradigm continues to prevail in assessing and measuring the well-being in the EU countries. This means that the institutional goals and the follow-up policies also tend to favor economic over non-economic objectives. This paper examines to what extent the Great Recession has increased or decreased the influence of economic factors on subjective well-being and the implications for policy-making. Regression analysis of subjective well-being data from 2006, 2011, and 2016 from 16 countries from the European Union shows that the influence of economic factors on subjective well-being is stronger than before the Great Recession in the majority of the analyzed countries. It has also revealed that satisfaction with one’s standard of living is a much stronger predictor of subjective well-being than the overall economic situation.