Cultural Determinants of Subjective Well-Being: Epidemiological Evidence from the European Social Survey

Abstract

Applying the epidemiological approach, this thesis studies the relation between national culture and subjective well-being using respondents from the European Social Survey and the culture dimensions developed by Geert Hofstede. Examining second-generation immigrants, originating from 99 countries all across the globe, the effect of culture was isolated from contemporaneous effects of the institutional and economic environment of the destination-country. Overall, the most important finding of this thesis is that cultural preferences and beliefs are likely to exercise influence over individual happiness outcomes, even outside of the environment in which these cultural values originate. However, the exact relation between the cultural dimensions and SWB outcomes turned out to be hard to uncover.