Does Subjective Well-Being Affect Political Participation?

Abstract

Subjective well-being (SWB) has been positively correlated with political activity, however the causality of the effect remains debated. By estimating within-individual effects, I show that SWB decreases protest intentions, while its effect on voting is not significant. Despite the mutual influence between SWB and protest, the results suggest that the influence of SWB on protesting is stronger than the reverse effect, thereby setting an agenda for future research in this domain.

Keywords

• political participation
• political protest
• subjective well-being
• fixed effects
• causality