Author:

Lyudmila S. Skachkova, Southern Federal University, Rostov-on-Don, Russia

Abstract:

Subjective well-being is increasingly often viewed as the key indicator of socioeconomic policy efficiency, which goes beyond simple assessment of material wellbeing and reveals the underlying mechanisms of socioeconomic development. The paper empirically evaluates the relationship between material well-being (the income level and duration of staying in the states of various material prosperity) and subjective well-being in Russia as well as grounds the role of subjective metrics in assessing socioeconomic policies. The methodological basis of the study is a set of theoretical concepts in the field of happiness economics and subjective well-being. The research method is econometric modelling using a binary probit model with mixed effects. The evidence base consists of the panel data of The Russia Longitudinal Monitoring Survey – Higher School of Economics (RLMS-HSE) for 2007–2021. The investigation reveals a moderate positive effect of income on subjective well-being. The prolonged stay in the states of poverty and wealth does not have a statistically significant impact on life satisfaction. Short periods on a high income tend to even decrease subjective well-being, which exposes complex mechanisms of adaptation and transformation of social expectations. The dominance of individual discrepancies over objective economic factors validates the necessity of integrating subjective metrics into economic policy assessment along with traditional indicators of economic growth.

Keywords: subjective well-being; income; happiness economics; adaptation; life satisfaction; the Easterlin paradox.

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For citation: Skachkova L. S. (2025). Paradoxes of subjective well-being in Russia. Journal of New Economy, vol. 26, no. 4, pp. 47–68. DOI: 10.29141/2658-5081-2025- 26-4-3. EDN: PRFRMS.