ABSTRACT
We analyse the importance of the spread of Covid-19 and related policy measures for individual life satisfaction in a sample of 15 European countries. We find that life satisfaction is negatively correlated with the spread of Covid-19 in Northern Europe, whereas this correlation is insignificant in Southern and Western Europe. This result is mitigated by the stringency of policy measures in the North. By contrast, the stringency of policy measures is negatively correlated with life satisfaction in the West. These results indicate that while policy measures can reassure the population and increase life satisfaction, beyond a certain threshold these policy measures may decrease life satisfaction. © 2021 The Author(s). Published by Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.