Economic Crisis of 2008–09 and Subjective Well-Being: An Empirical Analysis of Some Selected Countries

Abstract

‘Subjective well-being comprises of people's emotional responses, domain satisfactions, and global judgements of life satisfaction’ (Diener et al., 1999). The health-related Sustainable Development Goal (SDG-3) aims to ensure ‘good health and well-being’ for all, over the globe. The World Happiness Report (2022) reported a highly significant relation between the SDG-3 and the subjective well-being scores and hence for the improvement of citizen well-being suggested for a holistic approach to economic development. The present chapter examines the impact of global economic crisis 2008–09 on the subjective well-being using time series data for six selected countries for the time period 2004–2019. Considering the crisis as an ‘intervention’, this chapter performs interrupted time series analysis for single- and multiple-group (country) comparisons. The single group analysis finds that in the immediate year of crisis, there appeared to be significant decrease in subjective well-being, followed by a significant decrease in the annual trend subjective well-being relative to pre-crisis for most of the countries. In case of multiple group analysis, the regression results reveal that initial mean level difference between any country and remaining countries was significant for most of the countries. The difference in the subjective well-being trend between a particular country and remaining countries after initiation of the crisis compared to pre-crisis period has appeared to be significantly negative for all the countries considered in the analysis.

Citation

Dasgupta, S. (2024), "Economic Crisis of 2008–09 and Subjective Well-Being: An Empirical Analysis of Some Selected Countries", Chatterjee, T. (Ed.) International Trade, Economic Crisis and the Sustainable Development Goals, Emerald Publishing Limited, Leeds, pp. 37-47. https://doi.org/10.1108/978-1-83753-586-620241003