Well-Being, Work and Government: Insights from Eastern Transition Countries

Recent studies on well-being or life satisfaction focus on transition countries. Using the year 2008 of the European Values Study 2010 (EVS), I use simple OLS regressions for life and job satisfaction, as well as satisfaction with government. A set of Central Eastern European and Baltic states (CEE) and the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) is analysed. The half of the CEE countries are meanwhile member states of the European Union (EU).
There two key findings observable. At first, general results known from the literature hold for Eastern European and former Soviet countries, as well. However, the analysis of job satisfaction and governmental quality shed some light on differences on the individual level and between countries. However, some of these differences may be driven by the 2008 financial crisis.