# **1. Introduction**<sup>**1**</sup>

A wide body of research on subjective wellbeing has resulted in corresponding interest among policymakers to identify ways to incorporate the research findings into policy. An increasing number of governments are concerned with measuring the subjective wellbeing of their citizens. The governments of both the UK and France have been exploring ways to gauge levels of subjective wellbeing in their societies. In Latin America, some countries are using multidimensional measures of wellbeing and happiness to better capture human wellbeing and development—in Colombia for example the ‘Quality of Life Index’ (CDHS 2005); in Brazil the government is incorporating happiness into its constitution. In the Arab world, governments are very much concerned about how to improve the conditions among unsatisfied citizens.<sup>2</sup> Even the U.S. government is considering the relevance of wellbeing metrics for its statistics.<sup>3</sup> If citizens and policy makers strive to increase subjective wellbeing, there needs to be a good understanding of which characteristics have the most important influence on these outcomes. The paper takes advantage of a detailed data set from Colombia and explores the correlates of citizens’ subjective wellbeing and perceived changes in subjective wellbeing, as well as the channels through which policy responses can influence these. It thereby builds on the present research but it analyzes a much broader, more interdisciplinary, and more policy-relevant range of potential determinants simultaneously than currently existing in the literature on subjective wellbeing, including: people’s basic background traits (age, sex, income, geographic location etc.), supply variables such as levels of health and education service delivery, changes in their employment status and income levels, a number of factors affecting their health status, personal security, levels of public engagement, political voice, economic and political environment as well as policy instruments such as receiving cash transfers or a pension. The paper has two main objectives: we analyze, first, to which extent subjective wellbeing in Colombia is influenced by a wide range of characteristics and conditions at the individual, household, regional and macro level; and then, second, assess the marginal effects of a number of factors on perceived changes over time in the level of subjective wellbeing of the same respondents between the period 2008/09 and 2010/11 in Colombia.

# **2. Data and methods**

The paper employs data from the latest round of survey data collected in Colombia from the Latin America Public Opinion Project (LAPOP). The 2011 survey uses a national probability sample design of adults age 18 and above, with a total number of 1,503 interviewed individuals. It applies a complex sample design, taking into account stratification and clustering. The sample comprises of six strata reflecting the six main geographical regions in the country and each stratum is sub-stratified by rural and urban areas. The sample consists of 56 primary sampling units and 370 final sampling units and represents 26 of the 32 departments, as the administrative regions (i.e. country subdivisions) are called in Colombia. LAPOP data has been collected each year in Colombia between 2004 and 2011 (for further information see: LAPOP 2011). All findings are presented (unless otherwise indicated)

> 1 We are thankful for comments from Corinna Peters, Jordan Solomon and two anonymous journal referees. 2 This statement was made by Nandini Krishnan, World Bank economist for the Middle East and North Africa, during a poverty conference held at the World Bank in Washington DC on the 4<sup>th</sup> of May 2012.

> 3 There is a National Academy of Sciences panel tasked with exploring this question for the U.S; Graham is a member of that panel.

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