Variables Affecting Happiness

DJ-99

I'm doing a research project for my Econometrics seminar, and my dependent variable is the percentage of a country's population who thinks they are happy. What I'm looking for is some good explanatory variables to regress this variable on.

Ideally, I'll have 2 groups of variables, trying to show that some countries' citizens are driven by consumption, while others are driven by other stuff. My consumption variable group will contain things like GDP, cars per household, government welfare spending, a variable for whether or a not a country borders a top 10 GDP country, and stuff like that. My "other" group will contain things like percentage of population affiliated with a religion, marriage/divorce rates, average family size, population, and maybe a variable for whether or not the country is a democracy.

So I'd like some help just generating ideas for variables that would affect happiness. Ideally nothing too ridiculous, because I have to be able to collect the data for a lot of countries, but I'll welcome all suggestions. I'll really appreciate any help I can get.

Also, does anybody know some good data sources for stuff like this? I'm trying to collect data from as many countries as possible.

Thanks a lot for any help.

Aldo

Didn't they release a research on happiness amongst children last month? I remember my country scoring pretty good on that one.

Also: I doubt happiness is to be determined by how much money you earn or how much children you have, I know millionaires who committed suicide and hobo's who smile 24/7.

Vincent Grayson

There's some good stuff in this article, and a link or two in the comments to some sort of happiness "index": http://prompt.newsvine.com/_news/2007/02/28/591724-buddhism-for-happiness

DJ-99

Aldo wrote: »

Also: I doubt happiness is to be determined by how much money you earn or how much children you have, I know millionaires who committed suicide and hobo's who smile 24/7.

Well obviously not every single rich person will be happy and every poor person will be sad. But the general idea is, holding all other factors fixed, you should be happier with more money, and possibly with more children.

Besides, if my results are not what I expect them to be, that's ok too.

Boot2TheHead

Sense of connectedness to a community is important I've heard. Whether it be a church or a bowling league. We are social animals. The monkey that leaves the group doesn't do very well out there in the wild.

Andrew_Jay

The World Values Survey might be able to help you out. Perhaps not with how many people outright say they're "happy", but views on religion, government, society, family, consumption, etc.

Anyway, it's billed as "The World's Most Comprehensive Investigation of Political and Sociocultural Change".

Nation Master gives you access to lots of variables and data too.

dr_dan

DJ-99 wrote: »

Aldo wrote: »

Also: I doubt happiness is to be determined by how much money you earn or how much children you have, I know millionaires who committed suicide and hobo's who smile 24/7.

Well obviously not every single rich person will be happy and every poor person will be sad. But the general idea is, holding all other factors fixed, you should be happier with more money, and possibly with more children.

Besides, if my results are not what I expect them to be, that's ok too.

I dont think so. I've seen studies that came to the conclusion that as long as you earn enough to provide you and your family with the basics (a house, clothes food) money earned bears no relation to happiness whatsoever.

I cant find the links right now, so feel free to ignore that, but you may want to include other factors than just money: number of close friends for example.

Vincent Grayson

dr_dan wrote: »

DJ-99 wrote: »

Aldo wrote: »

Also: I doubt happiness is to be determined by how much money you earn or how much children you have, I know millionaires who committed suicide and hobo's who smile 24/7.

Well obviously not every single rich person will be happy and every poor person will be sad. But the general idea is, holding all other factors fixed, you should be happier with more money, and possibly with more children.

Besides, if my results are not what I expect them to be, that's ok too.

I dont think so. I've seen studies that came to the conclusion that as long as you earn enough to provide you and your family with the basics (a house, clothes food) money earned bears no relation to happiness whatsoever.

I cant find the links right now, so feel free to ignore that, but you may want to include other factors than just money: number of close friends for example.

Perhaps, but it's certainly easier to find time for things that make you happy (be it friends, family, reading, travel, etc) when you have a lot of money.

There's a ton of shit that I would enjoy doing, that would make me quite happy, but that I am currently incapable of because I simply don't have enough money. Hence, I would be happier with more of it.

Aldo

Vincent Grayson wrote: »

Perhaps, but it's certainly easier to find time for things that make you happy (be it friends, family, reading, travel, etc) when you have a lot of money.

There's a ton of shit that I would enjoy doing, that would make me quite happy, but that I am currently incapable of because I simply don't have enough money. Hence, I would be happier with more of it.

up to a certain level. After a while, you can do all the fun things and every extra penny you then make is not relevant to how content you are with life.

Or at least, that's the theory, I can't think of any studies with specific information.

Also: Such research would greatly depend on interviews, lots and lots of interviews, as every person is different in this aspect.

Feral

You can get a lot of this stuff from the CIA world fact book. It looks like you've got a pretty good list of variables.

Others that I would include:

Male life expectancy
Female life expectancy
Infant mortality rates

^ these three will give you an idea of the quality of medical care in the country.

Television sets per household

^ pretty good indicator of the amount of disposable income

Female literacy rates
Birth rates

^ indicators of how well a country is doing in terms of women's rights.

ege02

DJ-99 wrote: »

I'm doing a research project for my Econometrics seminar, and my dependent variable is the percentage of a country's population who thinks they are happy. What I'm looking for is some good explanatory variables to regress this variable on.

Ideally, I'll have 2 groups of variables, trying to show that some countries' citizens are driven by consumption, while others are driven by other stuff. My consumption variable group will contain things like GDP, cars per household, government welfare spending, a variable for whether or a not a country borders a top 10 GDP country, and stuff like that. My "other" group will contain things like percentage of population affiliated with a religion, marriage/divorce rates, average family size, population, and maybe a variable for whether or not the country is a democracy.

So I'd like some help just generating ideas for variables that would affect happiness. Ideally nothing too ridiculous, because I have to be able to collect the data for a lot of countries, but I'll welcome all suggestions. I'll really appreciate any help I can get.

Also, does anybody know some good data sources for stuff like this? I'm trying to collect data from as many countries as possible.

Thanks a lot for any help.

There was an article in the Economist/Newsweek/Time (can't remember which) titled "Utility, and How to Measure It".

Yar

DJ-99 wrote: »

Aldo wrote: »

Also: I doubt happiness is to be determined by how much money you earn or how much children you have, I know millionaires who committed suicide and hobo's who smile 24/7.

Well obviously not every single rich person will be happy and every poor person will be sad. But the general idea is, holding all other factors fixed, you should be happier with more money, and possibly with more children.

Besides, if my results are not what I expect them to be, that's ok too.

Every study I've ever read show that hapiness is not affected by money unless youa re below the poverty level, and even then it's usually because you can't afford an average level of health care.

I read a recent study that linked it to Catholicism or something.

Xntrggr

ege02 wrote: »

There was an article in the Economist/Newsweek/Time (can't remember which) titled "Utility, and How to Measure It".

It was the Economist, 23 Dec - 5 Jan '07 issue, titled "Happiness (and how to measure it)"

It is a pretty short read for a cover article, though, and it focuses more on the impact of capitalism on happiness, rather than the discussion of what makes people happy.