Dr Mattia Romani discusses key factors that have led to increased life satisfaction in European ‘transition countries’

Dubai, UAE, February 12, 2017:  “Money may not make you happy but it sure helps,” quipped Dr Mattia Romani, Managing Director for Economics, Policy and Governance at the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD), highlighting the impact of per capita GDP on life satisfaction in central and eastern Europe. 

Dr Romani addressed happiness experts, government officials, and representatives of international organisations at a session titled ‘Development through Closing the Happiness Gap’ at the Global Happiness Dialogue held on February 11 (Saturday), prior to the World Government Summit 2017, and outlined the results of the Life in Transition Survey conducted by EBRD in collaboration with the World Bank. 

The Life in Transition Survey is a household poll conducted in central and eastern Europe, dubbed ‘transition countries’, as the region underwent a significant shift during the period of the collapse of the Soviet Union. For the sake of comparison, some countries from western Europe are included in the survey as well. The survey began in 2006, and covers 51,000 households in 34 countries, providing insight into the past decade of life satisfaction and happiness for the region. 

Speaking on the key factors driving life satisfaction, Dr Romani said: “When touching upon GDP and employment, we see that there is a very strong correlation between job satisfaction and happiness, and evidence shows that there are very few exceptions to this rule. Similarly, education also plays an important role in life satisfaction.”

He added: “However, it is crucial particularly with regard to job satisfaction, that we work around the issue of overqualification of jobs, because that brings satisfaction down significantly. This is one area that we at EBRD are working on – specifically in North Africa and the Middle East - through training programs empowering individuals with the exact skills needed for their jobs.”

Elaborating on corruption in public services, Dr Romani said that satisfaction in public services rises as corruption falls, and this holds true for all countries. 
Speaking on the reducing gap between happiness in central and eastern Europe when compared to western Europe, Dr Romani said: “The pain of structural reforms that central and eastern European countries have gone through in the early transition years has now been fully overcome. The levels of happiness and life satisfaction in these countries have now converged to the average levels of western Europe. This convergence has largely come about through increasing satisfaction levels in central and eastern Europe, as well as through a reduction in average life satisfaction in western Europe. Nonetheless, this gap in happiness has now been overcome.”

The World Government Summit (WGS) 2017 has drawn the participation of more than 4,000 personalities from 139 countries around the world, reflecting the leading stature of the summit on regional and international levels and the high interest from governments, global organizations, private and public sector entities, decision makers, entrepreneurs, academics and university students as well as scientists and innovators. WGS 2017 features 150 speakers across 114 sessions that highlight the world’s most pressing challenges and showcase best practices and cutting-edge solutions to deal with them.