Abstract: With the central government paying more attention to livelihood issues, how to make people feel happy has become an important theme of governmental work. Against this background, this study used city workers’subjective happiness as an index of livelihood to systematically investigate the impacts of insurance against uncertainty on their subjective wellbeing. The existing literature about the important mechanisms of such insurances affecting people’s subjective wellbeing was first reviewed, and then their effects on city workers’subjective wellbeing were evaluated using the data from 2007 Chinese Household Income Survey. It was found that different types of insurances had significantly different effects on city workers’subjective wellbeing. Having pension insurance, unemployment insurance and injury insurance significantly improved city workers’subjective wellbeing, whereas participating in health insurance didn’t. The total variance of the city workers’subjective wellbeing that could be explained by the four kinds of insurances was 10 percent, with the unemployment insurance being the most important factor. According to the hedonic adaptation theory, city workers’subjective wellbeing will change, that is to say, with insurance against uncertainty being gradually promoted and implemented, the subjective wellbeing of the city workers may regress to their preinsurance level. If so, the government’s current effects to improve people’s livelihood via insurance policies are worthy of recognition, however, their returns in term of livelihood will be diminishing with the gradual popularization of the social security system. Thus, the government should pay attention to the quality of the longterm operation of the social security system.

Key words:  insurance against uncertainty, city workers, subjective wellbeing, heterogeneous treatment effect analysis