Regional disparities in the sensitivity of well-being to poverty measures

Consumption, poverty and happiness represent fundamental aspects in the analysis of household living conditions. Empirical evidence proposed in literature suggests a strong relationship between poverty and subjective wellbeing, usually mediated by contextual and regional characteristics. Despite this awareness a full understanding of the mechanism of affection of the context to the relationship is still lacking. In this study, we provide a deep analysis of the regional disparities influencing the poverty-subjective wellbeing nexus using Italian household matched data for 2016. In particular, we suggest estimating poverty-SWB models at the macro-area level to account for heterogeneity in the populations, not fully controlled by territorial macro variables. We also improve previous literature by exploiting the multidimensionality in the concept of SWB and poverty, by using economic and social measures of SWB and differ poverty indicators. Findings depict significant differences in the SWB-poverty nexus, especially when the economic life satisfaction is considered.