Do private and public transfers received affect life satisfaction? Evidence from Romania

Andreea Mitrut (1) , François-Charles Wolff (2, 3)

1 Department of Economics [Gothenburg]
2 LEMNA - Laboratoire d'économie et de management de Nantes Atlantique
3 INED - Institut national d'études démographiques

This paper uses Romanian survey data to investigate the determinants of individual life and financial satisfaction, with an emphasis on the role of public and private transfers received. A possible concern is that these transfers are unlikely to be exogenous to satisfaction. We use recursive simultaneous equations models to account both for this potential problem and for the fact that public transfers are themselves endogenous in the private transfer equation. We find that public transfers received have a positive influence on both life and financial satisfaction, while private transfers do not matter. People receive private transfers irrespective of their economic and demographic characteristics in Romania, which could be explained by some social norm motives.

Mots clés: Happiness; Financial satisfaction; Private transferts: Public transferts: Romania

Domaines: Economies et finances; Gestion et management

Andreea Mitrut, François-Charles Wolff. Do private and public transfers received affect life satisfaction? Evidence from Romania. 2010. ⟨hal-00546280⟩