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How can we explain why some regions experienced large decreases in subjective well-being during the 2008 recession, while in other regions, the changes were only very modest? Building on the literature on resilience in subjective well-being during periods of crisis, this article explores a related but undervalued factor that moderates the localized relationship between macroeconomic developments and life evaluation: regional quality of governance. We use individual-level data on life satisfaction and personal information taken from Eurobarometer for 89 European regions in the EU-28 for the period of 2005-2014, combined with macroeconomic variables and regional quality of governance data to test for the hypothesized moderating effect of quality of governance. The results demonstrate that increased regional unemployment and financial stress have a less aggravating effect on subjective well-being in regions characterized by a high quality of governance. These results support the capacity of quality of governance to buffer the negative effects of adverse macroeconomic conditions, most likely through generating trust and providing a safety net.

Despite progress in economic and social development in the 2000s, there was an increasing dissatisfaction with life among the population of many developing Arab countries. At the end of the decade, these countries ranked among the least happy economies in the world—a situation that fits the so-called "unhappy development" paradox. The paradox is defined as declining levels of happiness at a time of moderate-to-rapid economic development. This paper empirically tests the strength of association of a range of objective and subjective factors with life evaluation in the Middle East and North Africa region in the years immediately preceding the Arab Spring uprisings (2009–10). The findings suggest a significant, negative association between life satisfaction levels in the region during this period and each of the main perceived reasons for the 2011 uprisings—dissatisfaction with the standard of living, poor labor market conditions, and corruption.