Unemployment, job insecurity, and inflation are major economic factors that contribute to stress and anxiety among the population, often reflected in reported levels of ill-being. This study examined how these adverse economic conditions impact ill-being across European countries from 2005 to 2019. The aim was to identify nations that manage to minimize ill-being despite facing significant negative economic events. To do this, we applied a benchmarking method called data envelopment analysis (DEA). While DEA is commonly used to study well-being, it is not typically suited to analyze ill-being. For this reason, we are the first to apply a variant of this method, known as anti-efficiency or pessimistic DEA, in the context of well-being research. Our findings show that Nordic countries are particularly effective in mitigating the impact of economic challenges on ill-being. Furthermore, we observe that countries with efficient public administration systems tend to better manage ill-being.
Photo by Mustafa Al-Falahi