What Contributes to Life Satisfaction in Transitional Romania?

Abstract

This paper analyzes life satisfaction in Romania in 2001, 12 years after the collapse of communism and the beginning of the transition into a market economy. Using a survey of 1770 individuals, we find that our results are very similar to studies in Western Europe and the US. Life satisfaction increases with housing standard, health status, economic situation, education, trusting other people, and living in the countryside, and decreases with rising unemployment. However, life satisfaction is lower than in Western countries with about 75% of the people in the sample being not at all satisfied or quite dissatisfied with their life in general. A policy discussion concludes the paper.