TY  - JOUR
AU  - Helliwell,John F.
AU  - Huang,Haifang
TI  - How's Your Government? International Evidence Linking Good Government and Well-Being
JF  - National Bureau of Economic Research Working Paper Series
VL  - No. 11988
PY  - 2006
Y2  - January 2006
UR  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w11988
L1  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w11988.pdf
N1  - Author contact info:
John F. Helliwell
Canadian Institute for Advanced Research
and Department of Economics
University of British Columbia
997-1873 East Mall
Vancouver BC V6T 1Z1
CANADA
Tel: 604/822-4953
Fax: 604/822-5915
E-Mail: john.helliwell@ubc.ca

Haifang Huang
Department of Economics
University of Alberta
8-14 HM Tory
Edmonton Alberta T6G 2H4 CANADA
E-Mail: haifang.huang@ualberta.ca
AB  - In this paper we employ World Values Survey measures of life satisfaction as though they were direct measures of utility, and use them to evaluate alternative features and forms of government in large international samples.  We find that life satisfaction is more closely linked to several World Bank measures of the quality of government than to real per capita incomes, in simple correlations and more fully specified models explaining international differences in life satisfaction.  We test for differences in the relative importance of different aspects of good government, and find a hierarchy of preferences that depends on the level of development.  The ability of governments to provide a trustworthy environment, and to deliver services honestly and efficiently, appears to be of paramount importance for countries with worse governance and lower incomes.  The balance changes once acceptable levels of efficiency, trust and incomes are achieved, when more value is attached to building and maintaining the institutions of electoral democracy.
ER  -