The money-happiness relationship in transition countries: evidence from Albania

With an empirical analysis on a panel of individuals living in a transition country (Albania) we document that the impact of money on happiness does not depend only on the pecuniary outcome but also from aspirations and conditions leading to its determination. Additional factors which matter are the self perceived economic status and the share earned from remittances (and, more weakly, from social assistance). By looking at different sides of the phenomenon we find that these factors affect levels, changes in income and the probability of “being frustrated achievers”. Finally, differently from what happens in developed countries, higher income levels are negatively and not positively correlated with the probability of frustrated achievement supporting the hypothesis that individuals in transition countries are not in the upper side of a concave happiness-income relationship.