Intertemporal analysis of well-being and its contributing factors: Cross-country evidence

Abstract

Tracking well-being over time has the potential to shape public policies based on informed decision-making and reallocating scarce resources for balanced, sustainable and inclusive development. Using four waves of the World Values Survey (WVS) data between 1999 and 2022 for 48 countries, we estimate intertemporal changes in well-being and its contributing factors by using a multidimensional well-being index (MDWI). Our findings reveal that well-being has increased over time in most countries. We observe notable intra- and inter-country differences in the contribution of various domains to overall well-being. In general, the health domain contributes the most to well-being, followed by social capital, finance, safety, governance, science and technology, and religion. However, in the North American region, social capital is the highest contributing domain to overall well-being. Finally, five overarching policy implications are discussed that are expected to enhance the overall well-being of the countries under investigation.