Liberini, Federica , Redoano, Michela and Proto, Eugenio (2013) Happy voters. Working Paper. Coventry, UK: Department of Economics, University of Warwick. CAGE Online Working Paper Series, Volume 2013 (Number 169).

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Abstract

In this paper we investigate whether or not recent initiatives taken by governments
and international organizations to come up with indicators of Subjective Well
Being (SWB) to inform policy makers go in the same direction as citizens expectations
on what policy makers should do. We test retrospective voting hypotheses
by using standard measures of SWB as a proxy for utility instead of the commonly
used indicators of economic and financial circumstances. Using the British Household
Panel Survey Data we find that citizens who are satisfied with their life are
more likely to cast their vote in favour of the ruling party, even taking into account
ideological preferences. We show that SWB influences voting decision even when
the event affecting the SWB is beyond the government’s control, like the spouse
death.

Item Type:	Working or Discussion Paper (Working Paper)
Subjects:	J Political Science > JA Political science (General) J Political Science > JN Political institutions (Europe) > JN101 Great Britain
Divisions:	Faculty of Social Sciences > Economics
Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH):	Well-being , Voting -- Great Britain
Series Name:	CAGE Online Working Paper Series
Publisher:	Department of Economics, University of Warwick
Place of Publication:	Coventry, UK
Official Date:	September 2013
Dates:	Date Event September 2013 Published
Volume:	Volume 2013
Number:	Number 169
Number of Pages:	38
Institution:	University of Warwick
Status:	Not Peer Reviewed
Publication Status:	Published
Funder:	University of Warwick

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