Determinants of Life Satisfaction in the Czech Republic and their Development over Time

• Název práce v češtině: Determinanty životní spokojenosti v České republice a jejich vývoj v čase
• Název v anglickém jazyce: Determinants of Life Satisfaction in the Czech Republic and their Development over Time
• Klíčová slova: životní spokojenost, Česká republika, determinanty životní spokojenosti, vývoj
• Klíčová slova anglicky: life satisfaction, Czech Republic, determinants of life satisfaction, development
• Akademický rok vypsání: 2016/2017
• Typ práce: bakalářská práce
• Jazyk práce: angličtina
• Ústav: Institut ekonomických studií (23-IES)
• Vedoucí / školitel: doc. PhDr. Julie Chytilová, Ph.D.
• Řešitel: skrytý - zadáno vedoucím/školitelem
• Datum přihlášení: 30.05.2017
• Datum zadání: 30.05.2017
• Datum a čas obhajoby: 11.06.2018 09:00
• Místo konání obhajoby: Opletalova - Opletalova 26, O206, Opletalova - místn. č. 206
• Datum odevzdání elektronické podoby: 01.05.2018
• Datum proběhlé obhajoby: 11.06.2018
• Oponenti: Olha Khymych, DiS., Ph.D.

Seznam odborné literatury

(i) Bruni, L., & Porta, P. L. (2009). Economics and happiness: framing the analysis. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
(ii) Ferrer-I-Carbonell, A., & Frijters, P. (2004). How Important is Methodology for the estimates of the determinants of Happiness? The Economic Journal,114(497), 641-659. doi:10.1111/j.1468-0297.2004.00235.x
(iii) Fialová, K., & Štika, P. (2015). Well-being in the Czech Republic in an Aggregate Perspective. Review of Economic Perspectives,15(1). doi:10.1515/revecp-2015-0012
(iv) Yap, S. C., Anusic, I., & Lucas, R. E. (2014). Does Happiness Change? Evidence from Longitudinal Studies. Stability of Happiness, 127-145. doi:10.1016/b978-0-12-411478-4.00007-2
(v) Inglehart, R., Foa, R., Peterson, C., & Welzel, C. (2008). Development, Freedom, and Rising Happiness: A Global Perspective (1981-2007). Perspective on Psychological Science,3(4), 264-285.
(vi) Sarracino, F. (2013). Determinants of subjective well-being in high and low income countries: Do happiness equations differ across countries? The Journal of Socio-Economics,42, 51-66. doi:10.1016/j.socec.2012.11.006

Předběžná náplň práce

In recent years, a rising tendency to concentrate on happiness and well-being of citizens can be noticed among economists, international organizations and even politicians. To mention one concrete example, in July 2011 United Nations asked countries to measure happiness of their citizens and use it as one of the guidelines for their policy making. Over the past few years, there has been countless contributions conducted in the field of economics of happiness analysing which factors (and in which way) influence the feeling of happiness or satisfaction.
The aim of this thesis is not only to analyse the effects of certain factors on subjective happiness in the Czech Republic, but to analyse whether there have occurred any changes in those impacts on subjective perceiving of happiness over time. The main focus is going to be turned to possible evolution of those effects in the period from 2000 to 2014 or 2016.
Some of the phenomena to be analysed is for example whether the effect of unemployment on subjective happiness was the same before and after the crisis in 2008 or whether it changed– including comparison with countries which were hit by the crisis more severely than the Czech Republic. Another would be analysing whether other certain factors have persistently same effect on happiness over time or whether their effect changes.
Compared to many prior works, the subject of this study is neither going to be the effect of post-communisms transition, nor the effect of income or spending – as there have already been several extensive works conducted regarding those topics (e.g. by Miroslava Mičáková in “Economics of Happiness – the Case of Post-communist countries”, 2012)The goal of this thesis is to discover whether there have been any developments of these effects. This could be further used to decide whether it would be possible to predict these changes and use these predictions for moderating potential distress or increasing happiness of citizens by conducting policy accordingly.

Outline
Introduction
Economics of Happiness: What We Already Know about Determinants of Happiness
Generally on Happiness and its Determinants in the Czech Republic between 2000 and 2014(2016)
Comparing Effects on Happiness over Time
Conclusion

Basic econometric analysis (such as OLS or logistic regressions, …) are to be used on data collected via European Social Survey (for years 2002,2004, 2008, 2010, 2012, 2014 and potentially 2016), European Values Study (1999 and 2008) and via World Values survey.