Does good local governance improve subjective well-being?

  1. Ana Cárcaba 1
  2. Rubén Arrondo 1
  3. Eduardo González 1
  1. 1 Universidad de Oviedo
    info

    Universidad de Oviedo

    Oviedo, España

    ROR https://ror.org/006gksa02

Revista:
European Research on Management and Business Economics

ISSN: 2444-8834

Año de publicación: 2022

Volumen: 28

Número: 2

Páginas: 18-27

Tipo: Artículo

DOI: 10.1016/J.IEDEEN.2021.100192 DIALNET GOOGLE SCHOLAR

Otras publicaciones en: European Research on Management and Business Economics

Resumen

The goal of this research is to examine the effects of good management of local governments on individual subjective well-being (SWB). We define three dimensions of good governance at the municipal level: accountability, government efficiency and control of corruption. We use a large survey of individual welfare carried out in Spain in 2013 and 2018 and distinguish four potential drivers of SWB: socio-demographic fac- tors, material conditions, quality of life and municipal governance. Individual QoL variables, such as social connections or health status are major drivers of SWB. To a lesser extent, the material conditions also have a significant impact. With respect to good governance, our results point to an immediate positive effect of gov- ernment efficiency on individual SWB levels. In contrast, accountability, understood as transparency, does not seem to have a significant impact. Surprisingly, we find no immediate effect of corruption on reported SWB, but a very strong deferred impact.

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