An Ordered Probit Analysis of National Solidarity: Evidence from Russia

This paper estimates transition differences of several explanatory variables characterizing wealth accumulation, personal expectances and primarily subjective well-being (SWB) as well as other regressors employing ordered probit, a statistical model for polychotomous dependent variables. By optimizing ordered probit models via maximum likelihood, we therefore examine relationship amongst regressors and national unity (NU) and verify parallel slopes assumption. We primarily utilize two datasets obtained from Russian Longitudinal Monitoring Survey (RLMS) of 2012 and 2015. It is well-known that 2015 was marked by economic recession. This fact is used for estimation of wealth factors. Empirical results reveal logical tendencies during economic contraction: wealth accumulation explanatory variables are more related to national unity and basically have higher weights linked to them. In other words, as long as the economy is stable, NU may be more projected on variables, for instance, that are connected to health or education issues rather than financial matters.