Jani-Petri Laamanen

Welfare State and Life Satisfaction: Evidence from Public Health Care

We examine the link between the welfare state and citizens subjective wellbeing by using evidence from public health care services. By combining local-level data on public health care and individual-level data on life satisfaction, we show that relatively high expenditures in health care have a positive effect on individuals life satisfaction in our data. We find some evidence for an ‘ends-against-the-middle’ equilibrium in provision of public health care, where middle-income individuals prefer higher public expenditure than low-income or high-income individuals. Further, our results indicate that the welfare benefit of public provision depends on individual political orientation.

Mind the gap? Business cycles and subjective well-being

ABSTRACT We examine the relationship between output fluctuations and within-country variation in subjective well-being using country panels. We show that the deviation of output from trend, unlike trend growth, is positively associated with well-being. The explanatory power of the business cycle is found to be better than that of the level of output.

Is There a Doctor in the House

What is the most efficient type of healthcare system? This question resonates globally, as governments seek to ensure that their citizens are provided with adequate care while simultaneously attempting to control costs. A vast literature addresses the various advantages and disadvantages of private versus public systems in meeting these two goals. Summers (1989) suggests that an optimal system would combine a public system—to ensure universal coverage—with some private alterative, so that those who were willing and able to pay for extra services would be able to use their resources to provide a better fit to their wants and needs. Appealing to the benefits of a simple economic model, and using the case of Finland as an example, our paper examines this option.