Life satisfaction of people with disabilities and public policy in EU countries

Background: The concept of subjective well-being (SWB) is frequently used in economic, social, and other research. It is extremely relevant to assess the well-being of vulnerable groups, e.g., persons with disabilities. The 2006 United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities urges countries to introduce policies that ensure equal life opportunities for this group. The aim of this article is therefore to assess the impact of public policies in selected European countries on the life satisfaction of people with disabilities. Methods: We use nationally representative data from five waves of the European Social Survey covering 25 countries and public policy data from the OECD database. Multivariate regression was applied to estimate the influence of public spending due to incapacity (on a country level) on the individual life satisfaction of persons with disabilities, controlling for country dummies, individual characteristics and other macroeconomic factors. Results: The results show that the amount of public spending on disability as a percentage of GDP is statistically significantly associated with the life satisfaction of people with disabilities in European countries. The relative increase in expenditure on the country level increases the life satisfaction of people with disabilities. Among other macroeconomic factors, the HDI is also positively associated with life satisfaction, while the disability employment gap is negatively associated. Moreover, we proved that in more developed countries, the impact of incapacity spending on life satisfaction is smaller. Conclusions: To our knowledge, this is the first study examining the influence of public policies on the individual well-being of persons with disabilities. Our results confirmed that the level of public expenditure targeting vulnerable groups has a clear and positive impact on the subjective well-being of individuals. These findings present important evidence that targeted policies can improve the lives of individuals.