국민행복, 삶의 질, 그리고 공공서비스의 관계 연구 = Happiness and Government`s Role: A Study on the Mediating Effect of Quality of Life between Public Services and Happiness

다국어 초록 (Multilingual Abstract)

Along with the global trend, the Korean government has increasingly been interested in citizen happiness as an important policy goal. This study explores how public services can contribute to citizen happiness. More specifically, it examines the mediating role of quality of life in linking public services and citizen happiness. For this, we surveyed approximately 20,000 adults sampled from across Korea and analyzed the data using structural equation modeling. The results show that citizen satisfaction with public services is not directly associated with citizen happiness. Rather, it tends to enhance citizen happiness when mediated by improved quality of life. Among public services, those that are closely related to the everyday life of citizens are found to be more strongly related to quality of life, eventually making citizens happier. This suggests governments need to identify public services that have greater impact on a broader range of the public and invest more in those services to enhance citizen happiness.