Flat tax schemes are popular in Eastern Europe, with an ever increasing number of countries where it is introduced, and yet many other where it is recurringly discussed. Analysing three countries, we show that the design of such schemes largely determines their impact on fiscal revenues and on...

The paper argues that there is a valuable overlap between quot;objective goodquot; and people's preferences over basic needs. Firstly, using survey data with 30,000 observations from twenty European countries I analyse the determinants of individual's quot;experienced utilityquot;. The proxy for...

This paper aims to test empirically if certain frequently used measures of well-being, which are regarded as valuable properties of human life, are actually desired by people. In other words, it investigates whether the quot;expert judgmentsquot; in social science overlap with social consensus...

Economic transition lowered happiness on average, but did not affect all equally. This paper uses Hungarian survey data to study the impact of religion and economic transition on happiness. Religious involvement contributes positively to individualsiquest; self-reported well-being. Controlling...

This paper raises the issue whether public policy should focus on minimizing unhappiness rather than maximizing happiness. Using a cross-sectional multi-country dataset with 57,000 observations from 29 European countries, we show that unhappiness varies a great deal more across social groups...