Zhang, Y., Howley, P. and Hetschko, C. orcid.org/0000-0002-2953-1548 (2025) Happy citizens trust their rulers. Journal of Population Economics, 38 (3). 65. ISSN: 0933-1433
Abstract
Using Chinese panel data, we examine whether citizen well-being impacts the formation of political trust, which is key to regime stability. Through a quasi-experimental method, we demonstrate how an improvement in subjective well-being directly leads to increased political trust. In a supplementary analysis, we also demonstrate how low political trust is predictive of actions that undermine regime stability. These findings suggest that any government, even an authoritarian one, has an incentive to foster the happiness of its citizens.
Metadata
Item Type: | Article |
---|---|
Authors/Creators: |
|
Copyright, Publisher and Additional Information: | © The Author(s) 2025. This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article's Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article's Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/. |
Keywords: | Political trust, Life satisfaction, Social contract, Regime stability, Accountability |
Dates: |
|
Institution: | The University of Leeds |
Academic Units: | The University of Leeds > Faculty of Business (Leeds) > Economics Division (LUBS) (Leeds) |
Date Deposited: | 09 Oct 2025 09:20 |
Last Modified: | 09 Oct 2025 09:20 |
Published Version: | https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s00148-0... |
Status: | Published |
Publisher: | Springer Nature |
Identification Number: | 10.1007/s00148-025-01120-4 |
Related URLs: | |
Open Archives Initiative ID (OAI ID): | oai:eprints.whiterose.ac.uk:232653 |