Beyond GDP: Exploring the Growth–Subjective Well-Being Nexus in the Next Eleven Countries
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Abstract
Although economic growth is often regarded as the primary source of better living standards, the Easterlin Paradox suggests that higher income does not necessarily improve people's subjective well-being (SWB). This study, using a panel data framework with Driscoll--Kraay standard errors, investigates the relationship between growth and SWB in the Next Eleven (N-11) countries from 2009 to 2019, moving beyond traditional income-based measures of well-being, including unemployment, institutional quality, and economic complexity. The findings show that higher unemployment reduces life satisfaction, while better institutional quality enhances it. Real GDP per capita has no significant effect once these factors are taken into account, supporting the Easterlin Paradox. In addition to addressing the gap in growth literature on the association between economic complexity and SWB, which is found to be negative, a central contribution of the study is justifying the introduction of a modernization tax, referring to the social costs that often accompany rapid structural change; as economies transform, people may face job shifts, skill mismatches, and greater uncertainty, which can lower life satisfaction. Overall, improving job conditions and strengthening institutions appear more important for well-being than simply increasing income in N-11 countries, consistent with the United Nations 2030 Agenda.
JEL Codes: E24, D73, I31, O14, O11
Keywords: Subjective well-being; Easterlin Paradox; Sustainable development; Institutional quality; Economic complexity
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Gündüz-Özgür, Şule (2026) “Beyond GDP: Exploring the Growth–Subjective Well-Being Nexus in the Next Eleven Countries”, World Journal of Applied Economics, 12(1), pp. 21-41. doi: 10.22440/wjae.12.1.2.
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Ciziceno, M., & Travaglino, G. A. (2019). Perceived corruption and individuals’ life satisfaction: The mediating role of institutional trust. Social Indicators Research, 141 (2), 685–701. doi:10.1007/s11205-018-1850-2
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Easterlin, R. A. (2006). Life cycle happiness and its sources. Journal of Economic Psychology, 27 (4), 463–482. doi:10.1016/j.joep.2006.05.002
Easterlin, R. A. (2021). An Economist’s Lessons on Happiness: Farewell Dismal Science! Springer Cham. doi:10.1007/978-3-030-61962-6
Easterlin, R. A., McVey, L. A., Switek, M., Sawangfa, O., & Zweig, J. S. (2010). The happiness–income paradox revisited. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 107 (52), 22463–22468. doi:10.1073/pnas.1015962107
Easterlin, R. A., & O’Connor, K. J. (2022a). The Easterlin paradox. In K. F. Zimmermann (Ed.), Handbook of labor, human resources and population economics (pp. 1–20). Springer Cham. doi:10.1007/978-3-319-57365-6 184-2
Easterlin, R. A., & O’Connor, K. J. (2022b). Explaining happiness trends in Europe. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 119 (37), e2210639119. doi:10.1073/pnas.2210639119
Easterlin, R. A., & O’Connor, K. J. (2025). The happiness revolution in Europe. Cambridge University Press. doi:10.1017/9781009493697
Erdogdu, K. A. (2025). Income, social comparisons and happiness in Turkiye: Findings from 2024 Life Satisfaction Survey. Ekonomi Politika ve Finans Arastirmalari Dergisi , 10 (4), 1471–1494. doi:10.30784/epfad.1724446
Ferraz, D., Falguera, F. P. S., Mariano, E. B., & Hartmann, D. (2021). Linking economic complexity, diversification, and industrial policy with sustainable development: A structured literature review. Sustainability, 13 (3), 1265. doi:10.3390/su13031265
Frey, B. S., & Stutzer, A. (2000). Happiness, economy and institutions. The Economic Journal, 110 (466), 918–938. doi:10.1111/1468-0297.00570
Gevindhi, W. J., Dasanayaka, D. R. P. U., Dewappriya, N. P. R. D., Parinda, A. A. K., & Saliya, C. A. (2026). Exploring disparities in happiness index among countries with varied income levels. International Journal of Community Well-Being, 9 (1), 10. doi:10.1007/s42413-025-00288-7
Hagerty, M. R., & Veenhoven, R. (2003). Wealth and happiness revisited—growing national income does go with greater happiness. Social Indicators Research, 64 (1), 1–27. doi:10.1023/A:1024790530822
Hartmann, D., Guevara, M. R., Jara-Figueroa, C., Aristar´an, M., & Hidalgo, C. A. (2017). Linking economic complexity, institutions and income inequality. World Development, 93 , 75–93. doi:10.1016/j.worlddev.2016.12.020
Hassanein, E. A., Samak, N., & Abdelaziz, S. (2024). The synergetic effect of economic complexity and governance on quality of life: Policy thresholds. Humanities and Social Sciences Communications, 11 , 1185. doi:10.1057/s41599-024-03577-2
Hausman, J. A. (1978). Specification tests in econometrics. Econometrica, 46 (6), 1251–1271. doi:10.2307/1913827
Helliwell, J. F., Huang, H., Wang, S., & Norton, M. (2020). Social environments for world happiness. In J. F. Helliwell, R. Layard, J. Sachs, & J.-E. D. Neve (Eds.), World happiness report 2020 (pp. 13–45). New York: Sustainable Development Solutions Network.
Hidalgo, C. A., & Hausmann, R. (2009). The building blocks of economic complexity. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 106 (26), 10570–10575. doi:10.1073/pnas.0900943106
Hoechle, D. (2007). Robust standard errors for panel regressions with cross-sectional dependence. The Stata Journal, 7 (3), 281–312. doi:10.1177/1536867X0700700301
Jain, K., Kaushik, K., Aggarwal, A., Gupta, S. K., & Mahajan, S. (2026). A clustering based approach to visualize the impact of economy on national happiness score. Journal of the Knowledge Economy, 17 , 5814–5849. doi:10.1007/s13132-026-03156-7
Kahneman, D., & Deaton, A. (2010). High income improves evaluation of life but not emotional well-being. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 107 (38), 16489–16493. doi:10.1073/pnas.1011492107
Kamilcelebi, H., & Burger, M. J. (2025). Fairness perceptions mediate the relationship between income comparisons and subjective well-being: Evidence from Turkiye. Applied Economics Letters, 32 (16), 2344–2348. doi:10.1080/13504851.2024.2332584
Li, Q., & An, L. (2020). Corruption takes away happiness: Evidence from a cross-national study. Journal of Happiness Studies, 21 (2), 485–504. doi:10.1007/s10902-019-00092-z
Matusiewicz, M. (2025). Endless growth does not bring joy: Income inequality, human development, and happiness—a cross-country analysis with a focus on Europe. American Journal of Economics and Sociology, 84 (5), 683–694. doi:10.1111/ajes.12625
Muresan, G. M., Ciumas, C., & Achim, M. V. (2020). Can money buy happiness? Evidence for European countries. Applied Research in Quality of Life, 15 (4), 953–970. doi:10.1007/s11482-019-09714-3
North, D. C. (1990). Institutions, institutional change and economic performance. Cambridge University Press. doi:10.1017/CBO9780511808678
Oishi, S., Cha, Y., Komiya, A., & Ono, H. (2022). Money and happiness: The income–happiness correlation is higher when income inequality is higher. PNAS Nexus, 1 (5), pgac224. doi:10.1093/pnasnexus/pgac224
Oshio, T., Nozaki, K., & Kobayashi, M. (2011). Relative income and happiness in Asia: Evidence from nationwide surveys in China, Japan, and Korea. Social Indicators Research, 104 (3), 351–367. doi:10.1007/s11205-010-9754-9
Pesaran, M. H. (2015). Testing weak cross-sectional dependence in large panels. Econometric Reviews, 34 (6–10), 1089–1117. doi:10.1080/07474938.2014.956623
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