Mikko Weckroth

Living in a country’s largest metropolitan centre has a negative effect on subjective well-being. Although documented in many developed economies, the reasons for this particular geography of well-being are still poorly understood. Meanwhile a separate body of research has shown that the holding of extrinsic or personally focused values is also associated with lower levels of subjective well-being. This paper demonstrates the link between the two. It draws on the European Social
Survey (ESS) 2012 to show how metropolitan residents in Finland are more likely to hold extrinsic values such as power and achievement.
KEYWORDS
human values; value dissonance; subjective well-being; life satisfaction; Finland

Life satisfaction is an understudied topic in literature on socioeconomic stratification. Using the European Social Survey data, this study concentrates on the recent economic recession in Ireland, and the socioeconomic stratification of life satisfaction before and during economic crisis. We measure stratification multidimensionally using education, occupational social class and income. The results show that the effects of the crisis, which peaked in 2010 in terms of both GDP and life satisfaction, are not experienced equally within the population. Lower strata (lowest income quartile, manual workers and those with basic education at most) are more affected. In the pre-crisis period, life satisfaction appeared to be stratified mostly by income, which was due to the experience of economic hardship. However, during the crisis stratification of life satisfaction took a more complex and deeper form and also basic education and manual labour then began to explain lower life satisfaction.

This study examines the cross-sectional association of three value orientations (self-direction, achievement
and power) and level of gross domestic product (GDP) in 289 NUTS regions. Regional value aggregates,
drawn from Schwartz’s Human Value Scale included in the European Social Survey, are taken to indicate
value-based human capital. Regression analysis shows that self-direction, indicating independent
thought, action and creativity, is a strong predictor for regional GDP after controlling for standard control
variables and spatial autocorrelation. Additionally, analysis implements welfare regimes as indicators of
larger socio-historic frames and finds significant geographical variations within these frames regarding
the relationship between prevailing value climate and level of economic performance. The study contrasts
perspectives from economic geography and cultural studies to the literature on alternative definitions and
measures for human capital and argues that a synthesis of these perspectives can enrich one’s understanding
of the economic geography in Europe.