Election Outcomes and Individual Subjective Wellbeing in Great Britain

C-Tier
Journal: Economica
Year: 2021
Volume: 88
Issue: 351
Pages: 809-837

Authors (3)

Daniel Gray (not in RePEc) Harry Pickard (Newcastle University) Luke Munford (not in RePEc)

Score contribution per author:

0.335 = (α=2.01 / 3 authors) × 0.5x C-tier

α: calibrated so average coauthorship-adjusted count equals average raw count

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.

Technical Details

RePEc Handle
repec:bla:econom:v:88:y:2021:i:351:p:809-837
Journal Field
General
Author Count
3
Added to Database
2026-01-29