Well-being and the satisfaction of households in CEE countries: linking objective and subjective indicators

The project aims to analyse the links between living conditions and their perceptions in Czech, Hungarian, Polish and Slovak households. After the trends in aggregate indicators of socio-economic development are identified, questions will be raised about the degree and character of congruence among them. Using various data sources on the household level, inequality in and factors of objective well-being will be contrasted with perceived satisfaction by country and period since 1990. Comparative EU surveys will then be analysed to investigate the changing links since 2005 between material well-being and making ends meet both cross-sectionally and longitudinally. Two opposing explanations will be put forth: 1. the objective state is not perceived appropriately, and we should seek the reasons of that 2. objective indicators are insufficient to explain living conditions in a wider sense. The project will conclude by establishing the interactions between objective and subjective indicators that need to be observed by research and considered by policies. 

measurement of well-beinghousehold incomesubjective indicatorssatisfaction happiness