Dynamics of Happiness and Life Satisfaction Under Conditions of Exogenous Shocks

The papers aims to analyze the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic and the special military operation (SMO) in Ukraine on the Russian people’s happiness and life satisfaction. It relies on three waves of a national panel study conducted via CATI. We failed to identify any substantial impact of those two exogenous shocks on average dynamics of happiness and life satisfaction. Our research, however, shows significant variation between groups of different means. In general, respondents of poor financial status and external locus of control show a higher decrease in happiness and life satisfaction. Following the onset of the SMO and the pandemic, people with internal locus of control, in contrast, report higher levels of life satisfaction. Happiness follows the same pattern, but exclusively in connection with COVID-19. Social capital, operationalized as social support networks, mitigates the otherwise negative effect of the SMO, but not the effect of pandemics. Our findings support earlier research on the stronger influence of economic status and locus of control on life satisfaction compared to happiness.