An analytical study of worker well-being and COVID-19 impact using Bayesian panel modeling

This study investigates how the determinants of Japanese workers’ well-being shifted before and during the COVID-19 pandemic. We estimate a Bayesian hierarchical panel model and Markov chain Monte Carlo sampling is implemented with the ancillarity–sufficiency interweaving strategy to handle the high parameter-to-sample ratio efficiently. Consequently, we observed that positive drivers include marriage, good health, job satisfaction, and conversion from nonregular to regular employment, whereas male gender, turnover intention, reduced family contact, and pandemic-related financial concerns lower well-being. Age traces a U-shape, and weekday sleep shows an inverse-U pattern. Although the evidence is correlational and confined to self-reported data from one country, the analysis clarifies how socio-economic and workplace factors interact with a major external shock.