Transformations  in
Business & Economics

DETERMINANTS OF SUBJECTIVE WELL-BEING AMONG EUROPEAN UNIONS OLDER ADULTS⁹
Alexandra Cristina Sirbu, Madalina-Maria Brezuleanu, Claudiu Gabriel Tiganas, Mircea Asandului, Andreea-Oana Iacobuta-Mihaita

ABSTRACT: The worldwide demographic challenge of population ageing brings to the fore the need to analyse subjective well-being and its determinant factors among older adults. The relatively few studies in the field emphasize the changes which occur while getting old in terms of subjective well-being determinant factors perception and identification and further outline the specificity of this topic among the above-mentioned categories. This paper aims at identifying and analysing the micro- level determinants of subjective well-being among older adults in European Union countries. Our study is based on data from the Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe. The sample consists of 41 490 older adults who were questioned about several aspects of their life in 2020, just before the start of the Coronavirus pandemic. Using the ordered logit regression, we estimated models to identify the main determinants of subjective well-being. The results show that good health, employment, social support and a level of income that enable households to make ends meet have a positive effect on subjective well-being while education negatively affects the subjective well-being of older adults.

KEYWORDS:  subjective well-being, life satisfaction, older adults, SHARE, Ologit- ordered regression model.

JEL classification:  I30, I31, I39.

⁹Acknowledgments:  Mircea Asandului acknowledges the financial support from the Romanian National Authority for Scientific Research and Innovation, CNCS UEFISCDI PN-III-P4-IDPCE2020-0929.