An investigation into the relationship between town size and well-being in Latin America and the role of education

Jantsch, Antje and Piper, Alan (2024): An investigation into the relationship between town size and well-being in Latin America and the role of education.

Abstract

In this study, we explore the relationship between town size and subjective well-being (SWB) in Latin America. We utilize data from the Latinobarómetro survey from 2005 to 2015, employing multilevel modeling to analyze individual responses to life satisfaction as an indicator of SWB. We refine the town size categories provided in the Latinobarómetro by cross-referencing the geographic information with the United Nations Demographic Yearbook, one of our main contributions, leaving us with more refined town size categories than previous research. Given previous theories, we also explore how education moderates the town size-SWB relationship. Our findings reveal that individuals in towns with populations between 10,000 and 500,000 report lower life satisfaction compared to those in smaller or larger towns. Controlling for national macroeconomic conditions reverses the positive association between SWB and living in a very large city. Furthermore, we find support for the notion that lower-educated individuals are less happy in large cities, while the relationship is inconclusive for highly-educated individuals. This study underscores the importance of refining town size data and suggests avenues for future research to deepen collective understanding of the ‘geography of happiness’ in Latin America.

• Item Type: MPRA Paper
• Language: English
• Keywords: life satisfaction, subjective well-being, education, town size, Latin America, Latinobarómetro, multilevel modelling
• Subjects: I - Health, Education, and Welfare > I3 - Welfare, Well-Being, and Poverty > I31 - General Welfare, Well-Being; R - Urban, Rural, Regional, Real Estate, and Transportation Economics > R1 - General Regional Economics > R10 - General

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