A cross country assessment of the determinants of wellbeing : a focus on islands and small states

Abstract

The aim of this dissertation is to identify the main determinants that have an impact on wellbeing. After taking various determinants into consideration, it further investigates whether life satisfaction on Island States, Small Island States and Small States is higher than in other countries. Being a cross country study that mainly focuses on the Economics of wellbeing, secondary data is used. The main finding of this study is that living on an Island State, a Small Island State, or a Small State has no additional effect on the wellbeing after all other factors are controlled for. Also, education, income, health, governance and environmental factors were found to be significant for the variation in global wellbeing.