Subjective Well-Being in South Caucasus

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1. Paul 05.09.08 / 6pm

   I’m frankly shocked, because whether for good reason or not Armenians always seem to be one of the most pessimistic people in the world. I namely say this because they routinely end up in the top 10 list of those “worlds most happiest nations” surveys, compounded with Armenia’s precarious situation and perhaps the tinge of fatalism to be found in the Armenian people. Correct me if I’m wrong because I’m not in country as you are. With all these factors I would think that whether they were bad off or not a great deal of Armenians would have reported unhappiness with their current station in life. Hearing that they are most content in the Caucasus is not only heartening but extremely surprising for me at least.
2. Onnik 05.09.08 / 6pm

   Paul, I don’t think the survey is suggesting that Armenians are the most “content.” I think that the key word here is “subjective” and bear in mind that while the survey can correlate responses between the citizens of all three Republics the respondents didn’t.

   Elvin Afandi (2007 Fellow, CRRC-Azerbaijan), examined these issues using data from CRRC’s Data Initiative survey for the year 2006. DI’s “How would you describe the current economic condition of your household?” question allowed assessing subjective well-being of respondents who had to choose from “very poor”, “poor”, “fair”, “good” and “very good”.

   Anyway, the responses would be relative to the expectations and general outlook of the respondents I suppose, although yes, I agree the general habit of complaining and being unhappy is correct. The data is interesting, however, but I suppose it needs to be built upon.

   We know the results, for example, but how does that relate to national figures for poverty, remittances from abroad, undisclosed income and god knows what else. More importantly, why are the results as they are and is this reflected in other trends (data verified).

   I suppose local mentality and culture can be factored in as well. For example, Georgians have always struck me as more demanding with higher expectations of their country than, say, Armenians. Not sure about Azerbaijan, though.
3. Paul 05.10.08 / 12am

   Just a correction, I meant to say that Armenia routinely ends up in the top 10 of unhappiest nations in tthe world. It sits there with a bunch of sub-Saharan nations and I think Georgia comes by to visit as well. My statement would have made a lot more sense with un- in front of happy. I seem to recall Armenia rivaling Zimbabwe in past results, pretty horrific when you consider conditions there but then again I guess the places aren’t that much different when you consider both suffered political upheaval around the same time just this year.
   I know this doesn’t mean Armenia is best off economically, just that I was shocked that they relatively speaking found themselves to be in an ok economic state compared to Georgia and Az. Your interesting point that Georgians seem to have higher expectations fits in quite well with these results and seem to indicate what is going on.
4. Aram 05.10.08 / 3pm

   I think there is *some* reason for even the rural poor in Armenia to be slightly more optimistic, at least relatively speaking. Access to natural gas (which for many now exists and did not even a couple of years ago) and roads (which have also seen an improvement in the past few years).

   There are lots of other factors to be proud or saddened by, but I think the results are not that surprising. It is a relative measure, anyway.

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