Election Outcomes and Individual Subjective Wellbeing in Great Britain. (16th February 2021)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Gray, Daniel; Pickard, Harry; Munford, Luke
• Is Part Of: Economica. Volume 88:Number 351(2021)
• Page Start: 809
• Page End: 837
• Publication Date: 2021-02-16
• Subjects: Economics -- Periodicals; 330.05
• DOI: 10.1111/ecca.12362
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0013-0427

Abstract

Abstract : Exploiting novel longitudinal data on individuals in Great Britain matched to their parliamentary constituency, we find that supporting the incumbent political party, at both the national and constituency levels, exerts a positive influence on individual subjective wellbeing. This relationship varies across different measures of subjective wellbeing, gender and personal characteristics. We then implement a regression discontinuity in time design to estimate the impact of a quasi‐natural experiment, where we exploit the timing of the survey around the 2010 election date in order to identify a causal relationship. We find that Liberal Democrat supporters have approximately one‐unit higher level of overall life satisfaction after their party's electoral success.