Double burden? Implications of indebtedness to general life satisfaction following negative life events in international comparison

While debt is not problematic per se, it can become an additional burden when people experience negative life events–like unemployment, a severe disease, divorce, or their partner’s death–which be detrimental for individuals’ subjective wellbeing. We investigate first, potential moderating effect of economic resources or, better yet, lack thereof in the relations between events and general satisfaction, second, whether this function state-level policies. expect that, on average, has reinforcing relationship satisfaction. Moreover, we that country-level policies protecting individuals from consequences experiencing event indebtedness explain country differences debt. test our assumptions among population aged 50+ applying data Survey Health, Ageing Retirement (SHARE). apply two-stage fixed-effects regression approach to estimate moderation satisfaction within across countries. Although find almost zero average countries, large variance effects This explained by regime, but generosity public unemployment health systems, level gender equality.