TY - JOUR
T1 - Empirical linkages between good governance and national well-being
AU - Helliwell, John F.
AU - Huang, Haifang
AU - Grover, Shawn
AU - Wang, Shun
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2018 Association for Comparative Economic Studies
PY - 2018/12
Y1 - 2018/12
N2 - This paper brings together the largest available sets of national-level data, covering 157 countries over the years 2005–2012, to assess the extent to which governance quality contributes to life evaluations. Our most significant new finding is that changes in governance quality within a policy-relevant time horizon can lead to significant changes in the quality of life. For example, the ten most-improved countries, in terms of changes in government service delivery quality between 2005 and 2012, when compared to the ten most-worsened countries, are estimated to have average life evaluations higher by 0.4 points on a 0 to 10 scale. The results also confirm earlier findings that service delivery quality generally dominates democratic quality in supporting better lives until delivery quality has reached sufficient levels. The situation changes as development proceeds, with democratic quality showing a positive influence among countries that have already achieved higher quality of service delivery.
AB - This paper brings together the largest available sets of national-level data, covering 157 countries over the years 2005–2012, to assess the extent to which governance quality contributes to life evaluations. Our most significant new finding is that changes in governance quality within a policy-relevant time horizon can lead to significant changes in the quality of life. For example, the ten most-improved countries, in terms of changes in government service delivery quality between 2005 and 2012, when compared to the ten most-worsened countries, are estimated to have average life evaluations higher by 0.4 points on a 0 to 10 scale. The results also confirm earlier findings that service delivery quality generally dominates democratic quality in supporting better lives until delivery quality has reached sufficient levels. The situation changes as development proceeds, with democratic quality showing a positive influence among countries that have already achieved higher quality of service delivery.
KW - Corruption
KW - Democracy
KW - Gallup World Poll
KW - Government effectiveness
KW - Happiness
KW - Subjective well-being
KW - Worldwide Governance Indicators
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85041182311&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1016/j.jce.2018.01.004
DO - 10.1016/j.jce.2018.01.004
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85041182311
SN - 0147-5967
VL - 46
SP - 1332
EP - 1346
JO - Journal of Comparative Economics
JF - Journal of Comparative Economics
IS - 4
ER -