最近幾年來，人民幸福感已成為世界各國首要探討的經濟指標。從經濟合作暨發展組織(OECD)、世界經濟論壇(WEF)、歐洲聯盟(EU)以及聯合國(UN)相繼投入研究之後，臺灣也開始著手進行幸福感的評估調查，並且預計於西元2013年公布臺灣的國民幸福指數。幸福感是人民的一種主觀感受，因此受到干擾的因素有很多種，國內外學者針對幸福感所進行的相關研究逐年地增加，本研究除了討論個人特質因素與總體經濟因素之外，還加入了政治效能感因素進行探討。本研究採用西元2005年以及西元2010年的臺灣社會變遷基本問卷調查進行討論，並且利用Ordered Probit Model進行各別年度以及合併年度的資料分析。從實證結果發現到人民的政治效能感與幸福感之間是呈現顯著的正相關，此代表人民若認為自己影響政府的能力有所提升時，人民的幸福感將會增加。
在臺灣歷年來總統大選前後的政治決策當中，可以發現到政府官員選前與選後的政治態度會出現不一致的情況。政治人物通常在選舉前提出的政策皆會順應著民意，而選舉之後總是反其道而行，此情形將會使得臺灣人民的政治效能感產生變化。本研究所採用的資料為總統選舉的前後時期，雖然在西元2005年到西元2010年臺灣人民的政治效能感有些微的上升，但是本研究認為此情形並無法代表人民影響政府政策的能力增加，因此與Frey and stutzer(2000a)所提出的直接民主有很大的不同。

In recent years, The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, the World Economic Forum, the European Union and the United Nations have been surveying happiness, Taiwan has also embarked on happiness assessment survey, and is expected to announce the data in 2013. In this study, in addition to demographic factors and macroeconomic factors, I also analyze the influence of political efficacy on happiness. Use data from Taiwan Social Change Survey data in years of 2005 and 2010, I find that people's political efficacy has an positive and significant effect on happiness. The more people feel that they influence on government, the higher their happiness is.
The underlying political economics for this study is proposed by Frey and Stutzer (2000a). They argue that direct democracy could increase happiness. In Taiwan, policies proposed by candidates were usually violated when they were elected. Politicians usually proposed policies conforming to public opinions in the elections, but then they usually did exactly the opposite after the election. This case will make the people political efficacy difference. Year 2005 and year 2010 were after and before the presidential elections. Although people's political efficacy did increase slightly from 2005 to 2010, this should not indicate the people can really affect the Government's policy. Therefore, politicians in Taiwan manipulated policies, people's political efficacy and happiness. The process is distinguished from the thought of Frey and Stutzer (2000a), in which people do have real power to control government.

第一章 緒論............................1
第一節 研究背景與動機..................1
第二節 研究目的與方法..................9
第三節 研究架構.......................11
第二章 文獻回顧.......................12
第一節 幸福感之相關研究...............12
第二節 民主程度與幸福感之關聯性.......15
第三節 政治效能感之相關研究...........18
第三章 研究方法與模型設定.............20
第四章 資料來源與變數分析.............23
第一節 資料來源.....................23
第二節 變數分析.....................24
第三節 敘述分析.....................28
第五章 實證結果分析 ...................35
第一節 西元2005年的實證結果.........35
第二節 西元2010年的實證結果...........38
第三節 合併兩年度資料的實證結果.......40
第六章 結論與建議.....................50
第一節 結論.........................50
第二節 建議與未來研究方向...........53
參考文獻..............................54
附錄..................................57

中文部份
吳俊德、陳永福，(2005)，投票與不投票的抉擇-2004年總統大選與公民投票的探索性研究，《台灣民主季刊》，第二卷，第四期，頁67-98。
英文部份
Almond, Gabriel A., and Sidney Verba, (1963), The Civic Culture: Political Attitudes and Democracy in Five Nations, Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
Bowler, S., and Donovan, T., (2002), Democracy, Institutions and Attitudes About Citizen Influence on Government, British Journal of Political Science, 32(2), 371–390.
Campbell, Angus, Gerald Gurin, and Warren E. Miller, (1954), The Voter Decides, Westport, Connecticut: Greenwood Press.
Clark, A. E., and A. J. Oswald, (1996), Satisfaction and Comparison Income, Journal of Public Economics, 61, 359-381.
Daniel Kahneman and Alan B. Krueger, (2006), Developments in the Measurement of Subjective Well-Being, Journal of Economic Perspective, 20(1), 3-24.
Di Tella, Rafael, Robert J. MacCulloch and Andrew J. Oswald, (2001), Preferences over Inflation and Unemployment: Evidence from Surveys of Happiness, American Economic Review, 91(1), 335-341.
Dorn, D., J. A. V. Fischer, G. Kirchgässner and A. Sousa-Poza, (2007), Is it Culture or Democracy? The Impact of Culture and Democracy on Happiness, Social Indicators Research 82(3), 502-526.
Dorn, D., J. A. V. Fischer, G. Kirchgässner, and A. Sousa-Poza, (2008), Direct Democracy and Life Satisfaction Revisited: New Evidence for Switzerland, Journal of Happiness Studies, 9(2), 227-255.
Dyck, Joshua J., and Edward L. Lascher., (2009), Direct Democracy and Political Efficacy Reconsidered, Political Behavior, 31(3), 401-427.
Easterlin, R. A., (1974), Does Economic Growth Improve the Human lot? Some Empirical Evidence, Nations and Households in Economic Growth, Academic Press, New York, 89–125.
Flavin, P., & Keane, M. J., (2012), Life Satisfaction and Political Participation: Evidence from the United States, Journal of Happiness Studies, 13(1), 63-78.
Finkel, Steven E., (1987), The Effects of Participation on Political Efficacy and Political Support: Evidence from A West German Panel, Journal of Politics, 49(2), 441-64.
Forgeard, M. J. C., Jayawickreme, E., Kern, M. and Seligman, M. E. P., (2011), Doing the Right Thing: Measuring Wellbeing for Public Policy, International Journal of Wellbeing, 1, 79-106.
Frey, B. S., (1997), A Constitution for Knaves Crowds out Civic Virtues, The Economic Journal, 107(443), 1043-1053.
Frey, B. S. and Stutzer, A., (2000), Maximizing Happiness? German Economic Review, 1(2), 145-167.
Frey, B. S. and Stutzer, A., (2000a), Happiness, Economy and Institutions, Economic Journal, 110(446), 918-38.
Frey, B. S. and Stutzer, A., (2000b), Happiness Prospers in Democracy, Journal of Happiness Studies, 1, 79-102.
Frey, B. S. and Stutzer, A., (2002), What can Economists Learn From Happiness Research? Journal of Economic Literature, 40(2), 402-435.
Graham, C. and Pettinato, S., (2001), Happiness, Markets and Democracy: Latin America in Comparative Perspective, Journal of Happiness Studies 2, 237–268.
Inglehart, R. and Klingemann, H. D., (2000), Genes, Culture, Democracy, and Happiness, Culture and Subjective Well-being, 165-183.
Inglehart, Ronald, (2006), Democracy and Happiness: What Causes What?, Paper for conference on human happiness at Notre Dame University, 22-24.
Layard, Richard, (2005), Happiness: Lessons from a New Science, Allen Lane, London.
Lyubomirsky, S., and Ross, L., (1997), Hedonic Consequences of Social Comparison: A Contrast of Happy and Unhappy People, Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 73, 1141-1157.
Ott, J. C., (2010), Good Governance and Happiness in Nations: Technical Quality Precedes Democracy and Quality Beats Size. Journal of Happiness Studies, 11(3), 353-368.
Staiger, Douglas and James H. Stock, (1997), Instrumental Variables Regression with Weak Instruments, Econometrica, 65, 557-586.
Stutzer, A. and Frey, B. S., (2006), Does Marriage Make People Happy, or do Happy People get Married? Journal of Socio-Economics, 35, 326-347.
Stutzer, A., and Frey, B. S., (2006a), Political Participation and Procedural Utility: An Empirical Study. European Journal of Political Research, 45(3), 391-418.
Tsou, M. W. and J. T. Liu, (2001), Happiness and Domain Satisfaction in Taiwan, Journal of Happiness Studies, 2, 269-288.
Vermunt, R., E. Spaans and F. Zorge, (1989), Satisfaction, Happiness and Well-being of Dutch students, Social Indicators Research, 21, 1–33.