Socio-economic determinants of subjective wellbeing toward Sustainable Development Goals: An insight from a developing country

Anas A Salameh; Sajid Amin; Muhammad Hassan Danish; Nabila Asghar; Rana Tahir Naveed; Mubbasher Munir

doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2022.961400

Socio-economic determinants of subjective wellbeing toward Sustainable Development Goals: An insight from a developing country

Front Psychol. 2022 Sep 14:13:961400. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2022.961400. eCollection 2022.

Authors

Anas A Salameh¹, Sajid Amin², Muhammad Hassan Danish³, Nabila Asghar⁴, Rana Tahir Naveed⁵, Mubbasher Munir⁶

Affiliations

¹ Department of Management Information Systems, College of Business Administration, Prince Sattam Bin Abdulaziz University, Al-Kharj, Saudi Arabia.
² Punjab Economic Research Institute, Planning and Development Department, Government of the Punjab, Lahore, Pakistan.
³ School of Commerce and Accountancy, University of Management and Technology, Lahore, Pakistan.
⁴ Division of Management and Administrative Science, Department of Economics, University of Education, Lahore, Pakistan.
⁵ Division of Management and Administrative Sciences, University of Education (UE) Business School, University of Education, Lahore, Pakistan.
⁶ Department of Economics and Statistics, Dr. Hasan Murad School of Management, University of Management and Technology, Lahore, Pakistan.

Abstract

One of the goals of happiness research is to identify the key factors that influence it. Therefore, the present research is designed to examine the determining factors of subjective wellbeing (SWB) in Pakistan. The present research is conducted by collecting the data of 1,566 households in Punjab, Pakistan, using the ordered logit and tobit model. The findings of this research confirm that income, education, government effectiveness, no perceived corruption, and perceived institutional quality improve wellbeing, while lower trust in family and friends, poor health status, living on rent, and dissatisfaction with the services of hospitals lower the level of wellbeing. But individuals with more social ties, who face barriers in health services, live more happily satisfied with their lives. Crime victimization and worrisome terrorism also lower the level of SWB. Findings of research strongly emphasize policymakers and government institutions to improve their quality and take essential measures for improving the governance structure.

Keywords: SDGs; government effectiveness; happiness and wellbeing; income; life satisfaction; life worthwhile; order logit; social capital.