The Link Between Voting and Life Satisfaction in Latin America

2011 ◽  
Vol 53 (04) ◽  
pp. 101-126 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rebecca Weitz-Shapiro ◽  
Matthew S. Winters
Keyword(s):  
Life Satisfaction ◽  
Latin America ◽  
Survey Data ◽  
Regression Models ◽  
Western Europe ◽  
Multilevel Regression ◽  
Individual Level ◽  
Compulsory Voting ◽  
Causal Direction ◽  
The Relationship

AbstractWhat is the relationship between voting and individual life satisfaction in Latin America? While studies of Western Europe suggest that voters are happier than nonvoters, this relationship has not been explored in the younger democracies of the developing world, including those of Latin America. Using multilevel regression models to examine individual-level survey data, this study shows a positive correlation between voting and happiness in the region, noting, however, that the relationship is attenuated in those countries that have enforced compulsory voting. We then explore the causal direction of this relationship: while the existing literature points to voting as a possible determinant of individual happiness, it is also possible that happier individuals are more likely to vote. Three different strategies are used to disentangle this relationship. On balance, the evidence suggests that individual happiness is more likely to be a cause rather than an effect of voting in Latin America.

scholarly journals Age and Life Satisfaction: Getting Control Variables under Control

Sociology ◽  
2020 ◽  
pp. 003803852092687 ◽  
Author(s):  
David Bartram
Keyword(s):  
Life Satisfaction ◽  
Regression Models ◽  
Middle Age ◽  
World Values Survey ◽  
Level Control ◽  
Control Variables ◽  
Individual Level ◽  
Confounding Variables ◽  
Independent Variable ◽  
The Relationship

Researchers investigating the relationship between age and life satisfaction have produced conflicting answers, via disputes over whether to include individual-level control variables in regression models. Most scholars believe there is a ‘U-shaped’ relationship, with life satisfaction falling towards middle age and subsequently rising. This position emerges mainly in research that uses control variables (for example, for income and marital status). This approach is incorrect. Regression models should control only ‘confounding’ variables; that is, variables that are causally prior to the dependent variable and the core independent variable of interest. Other individual-level variables cannot determine one’s age; they are not confounders and should not be controlled. This article applies these points to data from the World Values Survey. A key finding is that there is at best a negligible post-middle-age rise in life satisfaction – and the important implication is that there cannot then be a U-shaped relationship between age and life satisfaction.

scholarly journals Online News and Protest Participation in a Political Context: Evidence from Self-Reported Cross-Sectional Data

2021 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
pp. 205630512098445
Author(s):  
Nora Kirkizh ◽  
Olessia Koltsova
Keyword(s):  
Digital Media ◽  
Regression Models ◽  
Online News ◽  
Political Context ◽  
Government Control ◽  
Multilevel Regression ◽  
Traditional Media ◽  
Cross Sectional ◽  
Internet Media ◽  
The Relationship

Availability of alternative information through social media, in particular, and digital media, in general, is often said to induce social discontent, especially in states where traditional media are under government control. But does this relation really exist, and is it generalizable? This article explores the relationship between self-reported online news consumption and protest participation across 48 nations in 2010–2014. Based on multilevel regression models and simulations, the analysis provides evidence that those respondents who reported that they had attended a protest at least once read news online daily or weekly. The study also shows that the magnitude of the effect varies depending on the political context: surprisingly, despite supposedly unlimited control of offline and online media, autocratic countries demonstrated higher effects of online news than transitional regimes, where the Internet media are relatively uninhibited.

scholarly journals Examining the Effects of the Sacramento Dockless E-Bike Share on Bicycling and Driving

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (1) ◽  
pp. 368
Author(s):  
Dillon T. Fitch ◽  
Hossain Mohiuddin ◽  
Susan L. Handy
Keyword(s):  
Travel Behavior ◽  
Regression Models ◽  
Population Level ◽  
Panel Survey ◽  
Multilevel Regression ◽  
Combine Data ◽  
Cross Sectional ◽  
Individual Level ◽  
Before And After ◽  
Bike Share

One way cities are looking to promote bicycling is by providing publicly or privately operated bike-share services, which enable individuals to rent bicycles for one-way trips. Although many studies have examined the use of bike-share services, little is known about how these services influence individual-level travel behavior more generally. In this study, we examine the behavior of users and non-users of a dockless, electric-assisted bike-share service in the Sacramento region of California. This service, operated by Jump until suspended due to the coronavirus pandemic, was one of the largest of its kind in the U.S., and spanned three California cities: Sacramento, West Sacramento, and Davis. We combine data from a repeat cross-sectional before-and-after survey of residents and a longitudinal panel survey of bike-share users with the goal of examining how the service influenced individual-level bicycling and driving. Results from multilevel regression models suggest that the effect of bike-share on average bicycling and driving at the population level is likely small. However, our results indicate that people who have used-bike share are likely to have increased their bicycling because of bike-share.

Protest Issues and Political Inequality in Latin America

2020 ◽  
Vol 64 (9) ◽  
pp. 1299-1323
Author(s):  
Nicolás M. Somma ◽  
Matías Bargsted ◽  
Felipe Sánchez
Keyword(s):  
Socioeconomic Status ◽  
Latin America ◽  
Survey Data ◽  
Latin American ◽  
Political Behavior ◽  
Regression Models ◽  
Policy Changes ◽  
Political Field ◽  
Political Inequality ◽  
Socioeconomic Resources

Many studies reveal that socioeconomic resources increase protest participation, lending more political voice to the affluent and reinforcing preexisting political inequality. But existing studies ignore whether this holds across different protest issues. We argue that some issues reinforce political inequality, while other ones do not. We differentiate between survival protests—in which people react to direct threats to their material and social survival—and furtherance protests—which press authorities to make policy changes that seek to improve some aspect of society. Regression models with Latin American survey data show that people with higher socioeconomic status are overrepresented in furtherance protests, by implication reinforcing preexisting political inequality. However, survival protests attract people socioeconomically similar to national averages, contributing to a more balanced political field. Our results emphasize the need to reconsider the place of issues in the study of protest participation, political inequality, and political behavior in general.

scholarly journals Association between Cross-Cultural Social Adaptation and Overseas Life Satisfaction among Chinese Medical Aid Team Members (CMATMs) in Africa

2019 ◽  
Vol 16 (9) ◽  
pp. 1572 ◽  
Author(s):  
Xiaochang Chen ◽  
Xiaojun Liu ◽  
Wei Yu ◽  
Anran Tan ◽  
Chang Fu ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Life Satisfaction ◽  
Regression Models ◽  
Cross Cultural ◽  
Social Adaptation ◽  
Linear Regression Models ◽  
Team Members ◽  
Medical Aid ◽  
Electronic Questionnaires ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Overall Life Satisfaction

This study evaluated the relationship between cross-cultural social adaptation and overseas life satisfaction among Chinese medical aid team members (CMATMs) in Africa. A revised Chinese version of the Sociocultural Adaptation Scale (CSCAS) was used to measure participants’ cross-cultural social adaptation. The self-designed survey of the CMATMs’ overseas life satisfaction includes the following five aspects: food, housing, transportation, entertainment, and security. Electronic questionnaires were distributed non-randomly. Linear regression models were established to explore the association between cross-cultural social adaptation and all dimensions of overseas life satisfaction. After adjusting all the confounders, compared with moderate adaptation, poor adaptation was negatively correlated with all dimensions of overseas life satisfaction (B for food = −0.71, B for housing = −0.76, B for transportation = −0.70, B for entertainment = −0.53, B for security = −0.81, B for overall satisfaction = −0.71, all p < 0.001), whereas good adaptation was positively associated with all dimensions of overseas life satisfaction (B for food = 1.23, B for housing = 1.00, B for transportation = 0.84, B for entertainment = 0.84, B for security = 0.76, B for overall life satisfaction = 0.94, all p < 0.001). This study shows that a better cross-cultural social adaptation was positively connected to a higher level of overseas life satisfaction in general, and more specifically to higher levels of satisfaction with food, housing, transportation, entertainment, and security. This knowledge can be utilized in promoting cross-cultural social adaptation and overseas life satisfaction among CMATMs in Africa.

Education and trust: A tale of three continents

2018 ◽  
Vol 40 (5) ◽  
pp. 676-693
Author(s):  
Cecilia Güemes ◽  
Francisco Herreros
Keyword(s):  
Latin America ◽  
Social Status ◽  
Survey Data ◽  
Social Intelligence ◽  
Indirect Evidence ◽  
Weak States ◽  
Highly Educated ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Positive Effect ◽  
Theoretical Insight

To date, most research finds education to have a positive effect on trust. Education increases people’s social intelligence, making them better able to distinguish between trustworthy and opportunistic types. Alternatively, education allows people to attain privileged social status, making them more resistant to deceit and exploitation by opportunistic types. In this article we show that this is not always the case. The relationship between education and trust is mediated by state efficacy; where the state is relatively efficacious, trustworthy types largely survive, while the opposite is true with relatively weak states. In weak states, highly educated people should be the least trustful. We empirically demonstrate this theoretical insight with survey data from three continents, Europe and Africa at the extremes and Latin America in the middle. We provide some indirect evidence in favor of social intelligence as the key mechanism linking education and trust.

Democracy and Quality of Life in Asian Societies

2011 ◽  
Vol 12 (3) ◽  
pp. 343-357
Author(s):  
SHINYA SASAOKA ◽  
KATSUNORI SEKI
Keyword(s):  
Quality Of Life ◽  
Survey Data ◽  
Hierarchical Modeling ◽  
Causal Effect ◽  
Political Regime ◽  
Individual Level ◽  
Satisfaction With Democracy ◽  
Country Level ◽  
The Relationship

AbstractThis article examines whether democracy affects quality of life. Scholars have conducted surveys to investigate whether democracy is likely to lead to good quality of life. There are two contested views to the relationship: some suggest that democracy has a positive causal effect on quality of life, whereas others contend that democracy does not play such a role. Previous findings are supported by cross-national statistical analysis with aggregated survey data. However, aggregated survey data may cause ecological fallacy. Also, in order to ascertain the extant research, it would be beneficial to test the hypothesis by incorporating both individual- and country-level variables. Therefore, this paper applied hierarchical modeling to investigate the regularity. Both individual-level perception of democracy and country-level political regime data were incorporated in our empirical model. Our findings suggest that individual-level satisfaction with democracy has positive causal effect on one's quality of life, whereas the country-level characteristic of the political regime has no effect.

scholarly journals Conservation motivation, social equality and left-right ideological preferences in Western and Eastern Europe

2017 ◽  
Vol 13 (2) ◽  
pp. 336-351 ◽  
Author(s):  
Márton Hadarics
Keyword(s):  
Western Europe ◽  
Great Part ◽  
European Social Survey ◽  
Eastern European ◽  
Social Equality ◽  
Social Survey ◽  
Individual Level ◽  
Using Data ◽  
The Right ◽  
The Relationship

We investigated how attitudes towards social equality can influence the relationship between conservation motivation (or openness) and personal ideological preferences on the left-right dimension, and how this relationship pattern differs between Western and Central & Eastern European (CEE) respondents. Using data from the European Social Survey (2012) we found that individual-level of conservation motivation reduces cultural egalitarianism in both the Western European and the CEE regions, but its connection with economic egalitarianism is only relevant in the CEE region where it fosters economic egalitarianism. Since both forms of egalitarianism were related to leftist ideological preferences in Western Europe, but in the CEE region only economic egalitarianism was ideologically relevant, we concluded that the classic “rigidity of the right” phenomenon is strongly related to cultural (anti)egalitarianism in Western Europe. At the same time, conservation motivation serves as a basis for the “rigidity of the left” in the post-socialist CEE region, in a great part due to the conventional egalitarian economic views.

See No Evil: Heterogeneity in Public Perceptions of Corruption

2011 ◽  
Vol 44 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-25 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yuliya V. Tverdova
Keyword(s):  
Survey Data ◽  
Public Perceptions ◽  
System Level ◽  
Economic Conditions ◽  
Individual Level ◽  
Previous Election ◽  
The Government ◽  
Situation Économique ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
People’S Perceptions

Abstract.This paper investigates how people form perceptions about corruption. By combining survey data with system-level indicators in 30 countries, the author first explores the relationship between elite and mass evaluations of corruption. Furthermore, the author tests a series of hypotheses pertaining to how individual-level factors, such as political allegiances, personal economic conditions and education may influence people's perceptions. The findings reveal that mass assessments of corruption track closely those of the elites. In addition, more economically fortunate individuals and those who supported the government in the previous election tend to be less critical of corruption. The effect of education is contingent on a country's level of corruption. Specifically, more educated citizens in “cleaner” countries do not see as much corruption as their less educated counterparts. However, this difference is substantively modest.Résumé.Cet article étudie la façon dont le public établit sa perception de la corruption. En utilisant conjointement les informations données par les enquêtes d'opinion et par les indicateurs de pointage de 30 pays, l'auteur va d'abord explorer les évaluations de la corruption des élites et celles de la masse populaire. De plus, l'auteur va tester une série d'hypothèses concernant la façon dont la perception du public est influencée par des facteurs personnels, l'appartenance politique par exemple, ou par la situation économique personnelle ou l'éducation. Les résultats révèlent que les jugements de la masse sur la corruption suivent de près ceux des élites. De plus, les individus plus fortunés ou ceux qui ont voté pour le gouvernement aux dernières élections ont tendance à se montrer moins critiques au sujet de la corruption. L'effet de l'éducation est aléatoire quant au niveau de corruption d' un pays. En particulier, dans les pays considérés comme les plus « propres », les citoyens plus éduqués constatent moins la corruption que ceux qui sont moins éduqués. La différence cependant est extrêmement modeste.

scholarly journals How Does Multilevel Regression and Poststratification Perform with Conventional National Surveys?

2013 ◽  
Vol 21 (4) ◽  
pp. 449-467 ◽  
Author(s):  
Matthew K. Buttice ◽  
Benjamin Highton
Keyword(s):  
Monte Carlo ◽  
Public Opinion ◽  
Survey Data ◽  
Substantial Variation ◽  
Multilevel Regression ◽  
Individual Level ◽  
National Surveys ◽  
Empirical Inquiry

Multilevel regression and poststratification (MRP) is a method to estimate public opinion across geographic units from individual-level survey data. If it works with samples the size of typical national surveys, then MRP offers the possibility of analyzing many political phenomena previously believed to be outside the bounds of systematic empirical inquiry. Initial investigations of its performance with conventional national samples produce generally optimistic assessments. This article examines a larger number of cases and a greater range of opinions than in previous studies and finds substantial variation in MRP performance. Through empirical and Monte Carlo analyses, we develop an explanation for this variation. The findings suggest that the conditions necessary for MRP to perform well will not always be met. Thus, we draw a less optimistic conclusion than previous studies do regarding the use of MRP with samples of the size found in typical national surveys.

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