Abstract
A large literature examines the connection between the size and scope of government in the industrial democracies and human well-being, and generally demonstrates that greater government intervention into the market economy promotes higher levels of life satisfaction. In this paper, we extend this inquiry to a global sample of countries. We first develop a theoretical argument for why labor market regulations (rather than social welfare spending or the size of government) are the appropriate locus of attention outside of the industrial democracies. We then empirically evaluate the impact of such regulations on several different measures of subjective well-being. Examining both individual and aggregate-level data from the Gallup World Poll and the World Values Survey, we find robust evidence that people live more satisfying lives in countries that more stringently regulate their labor market. The implications for labor policy and the study of well-being are discussed.
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