Quality of Life and Globalization: Evidence from Islamic Countries Muhammad Tariq Majeed 1 Received: 8 February 2016 / Accepted: 23 July 2017 # Springer Science+Business Media B.V. and The International Society for Quality-of-Life Studies (ISQOLS) 2017 Abstract This study analyzes the relationship between three dimensions (economic, social, and political) of globalization and quality of life using a panel of 44 Islamic countries from 1970 to 2010. Using different estimation techniques, we find that overall globalization has a robust positive effect on quality of life, even when controlling for income, dependency ratio, literacy, number of physicians, and other factors. Neverthe- less, the results do not hold for all forms of globalization. Economic and political forms of globalization tend to improve quality of life. In contrast, social globalization does not improve quality of life. Keywords Globalization . Quality of life . Wellbeing . Islamic countries JEL Classification C23 . F15 . P4 Introduction A number of studies have examined the impact of globalization on economic efficiency and growth outcomes (Dreher and Gaston 2008; Dreher et al. 2008). However, sparse attention has been paid to explore the links of globalization with wellbeing. The extant literature on globalization and wellbeing can be categorized into two strands. First strand of the literature argues that globalization is the source of increasing economic growth which eventually enhances wellbeing by providing access to the basic necessities of life. Applied Research Quality Life DOI 10.1007/s11482-017-9554-3 The author is working as Assistant professor of Economics in Quaid-i-Azam University, Islamabad. He did his PhD in Economics from the University of Glasgow, UK, in 2012. * Muhammad Tariq Majeed m.tariq.majeed@gmail.com; tariq@qau.edu.pk 1 Quaid-i-Azam University, Islamabad, Pakistan