In this applied microeconomics dissertation, we study the effect of religiosity and life events on risk preferences and how happiness affect altruism. We begin with the first chapter by examining the relationship between high-risk health behavior and religiosity. Religious beliefs can impact an individual's behavior, including their future health. The 2021 CDC analyses shows that sexually transmitted infections (STIs) are still common, with an estimated 1 in 5 people in the US having an STI, and 13% of persons in the US with age 12 years old and above consuming any illicit drugs. We estimate the effect of religiosity on high-risk health behavior using panel data from the General Social Survey and construct a high-risk health behavior index using the CDC high-risk behaviors. The religiosity index was developed by combining religiosity dimensions such as religious service attendance, prayer frequency, and religious affiliation. Ordered probit was performed to test the relationship between high-risk behavior and religiosity. The result indicates that religiosity is negatively associated with high-risk health behavior and is statistically significant. We confirmed that religious people are less likely to be involved in risky behaviors, especially for Catholics. We also find that individuals who switch religion are more likely to engage in high-risk health behaviors. In the second chapter, we examined the relationship between health and happiness and how happiness impacts altruism. The previous economics literature has shown that altruism can create a warm glow or cause happiness; we tested instead whether happy people are more altruistic. Using data from the General Social Survey (GSS) covering the period of 2002, 2004, 2012, and 2014, we employed a two-stage least square approach and performed OLS and ordered probit regression. We use health as an instrumental variable for happiness. Overall, the results indicate that happiness is associated with volunteer work and giving to charity and provide a basis for policy development to focus on promoting factors that contribute to happiness and wellbeing in order to foster pro-social behavior such as volunteering and donation to charity. Lastly, on the third chapter, we investigate how life events affect risk aversion using the German Socio-economic Panel (SOEP) Data. Our fixed effects estimation suggests that experiencing childbirth and losing parents decrease individuals' risk-taking propensity, while getting separated from a spouse or partner increases the willingness to take risks. We also find that changing jobs increases the willingness to take risks, and individuals who become self-employed tend to take more risks. Furthermore, we examine the average treatment effect on the treated (ATET) and find that for family-related events that are relatively beyond control, such as experiencing childbirth or the death of a child, parent, or spouse or partner, people tend to become more risk-averse. On the other hand, people tend to become less risk-averse for circumstances that are relatively within control, such getting married, separated, and divorced.

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Many philosophers have long presented happiness as a complex phenomenon that has been difficult to define. Different perspectives have been discussed as central to the idea of wellbeing and thus several different concepts of happiness have been presented. When different ideas have been presented regarding the components of a happy life, the idea of tranquility has in several cases been disputed. This paper is conducted in the field of well-being to study the role of tranquility in happiness. This is done by answering the question: Is tranquility acomponent of a happy life? In exploring this research question, the three main well-being theories in the field of happiness will be presented. These theories are hedonism, the objective-list theory, and the desire theory. It is evident through the study that tranquility is a part of all three welfare theories. However, the role of tranquility is varied within the different theories. In hedonism, tranquility is described as the ultimate form of pleasure - what we seek. In objective-list theory, tranquility becomes a metric for assessing the impact of other factors on well-being. Finally, we see that in desire theory, tranquility is the state of not crossing the threshold of attitudes. According to well-being theories, it appears that tranquility enables or creates an enjoyable state. Thus, it becomes clear that tranquility has a positive impact on people. Through this, a conclusion can be presented where tranquility is part of a happy life.

This paper examines the relative influence of family stressors and the family’s socioeconomic circumstances on children’s happiness. Data from the 9 year old cohort of the national Growing Up in Ireland study (GUI) was used to examine these relationships. The sample consisted of 8,568 children and their families. The stressors considered were a conflictual parent–child relationship; children with emotional and social problems; parental depression; low parental self-efficacy and child isolation. A group of families and children who were experiencing a higher level of these stressors was identified. This constituted 16 % of the sample. Although socioeconomic disadvantage contributed significantly to the vulnerability of this group, it was by no means the sole or dominant issue. Using the Piers-Harris Happiness and Satisfaction Subscale, children’s self-assessed happiness in this identified group was found to be significantly lower than in the other groups, irrespective of socioeconomic and demographic variables. The family stressors were found to explain more than twice the variance in the children’s happiness than explained by the measures of socioeconomic status. Nonetheless, most of the variance remains unexplained. Future research directions to explore this are indicated.

Ye, Maoliang. / Thesis (M.Phil.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2007. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 32-36). / Abstracts in English and Chinese. / ABSTRACT --- p.i / 摘要 --- p.ii / ACKNOWLEDGEMENT --- p.iii / Chapter 1 --- Introduction --- p.1 / Chapter 2 --- Literature Review --- p.5 / Chapter 2.1 --- Measurement of Happiness and Its Reliability --- p.5 / Chapter 2.2 --- Income and Happiness: Hypotheses --- p.8 / Chapter 2.3 --- Literature Review on MZ twins approach --- p.12 / Chapter 3 --- Methods --- p.15 / Chapter 3.1 --- Omitted Variable Bias (Selection Effect) --- p.15 / Chapter 3.1.1 --- Ordinary Least Squares (OLS) Model --- p.15 / Chapter 3.1.2 --- Fixed-Effect (FE) Model --- p.16 / Chapter 3.2 --- Measurement Error --- p.17 / Chapter 4 --- Data --- p.19 / Chapter 5 --- Results --- p.21 / Chapter 5.1 --- Does Income Matter? --- p.21 / Chapter 5.1.1 --- OLS Regressions Using the Whole Sample --- p.21 / Chapter 5.1.2 --- Within-twin-pair Fixed-effect Estimations --- p.23 / Chapter 5.2 --- Sensitivity Analysis --- p.24 / Chapter 5.2.1 --- Other Indicators of Wealth --- p.24 / Chapter 5.2.2 --- Wage or Wage Rate? --- p.25 / Chapter 5.2.3 --- Measurement Error --- p.25 / Chapter 5.2.3.1 --- Does Education Matter? --- p.25 / Chapter 5.2.3.2 --- Reexamine the Income Effect --- p.27 / Chapter 5.3 --- Men vs Women --- p.29 / Chapter 5.4 --- Within Marriage: Income Pooling or Relative Economic Status? --- p.30 / Chapter 6 --- Conclusions --- p.31 / Chapter 7 --- Bibliography --- p.32 / Table 1: Descriptive Statistics of the Twins --- p.37 / Table 2: OLS Estimates of Happiness Using All Twins --- p.38 / Table 3: Ordered Probit Estimates of Happiness Using All Twins --- p.39 / Table 4: Within-twin-pair Fixed Effect Estimates of Happiness Using MZ Twins --- p.40 / Table 5: Within-twin-pair Fixed Effects Estimates of Happiness Using MZ Twins: Other Indexes --- p.41 / Table 6: Within-twin-pair Fixed Effects Estimates of Happiness Using MZ Twins: Using Wage Rate --- p.42 / Table 7a： Correlation Matrices of Different Measurements on Education --- p.43 / Table 7b： Correlation Matrices of Different Measurements on Income --- p.43 / Table 8: Estimates of The Effect of Education on Happiness: Considering Measurement Error --- p.44 / Table 9: Reexamine the Effect of Income on Happiness: Considering Measurement Error --- p.45 / Table 10: OLS Estimates of Happiness Using Female and Male Twins --- p.46 / Table 11: Within-twin-pair Fixed Effect Estimates of Happiness Using Male MZ Twins --- p.47 / Table 12: Within-twin-pair Fixed Effect Estimates of Happiness Using Female MZ Twins --- p.48 / Table 13: Within-twin-pair Fixed Effect Estimates of Happiness Using Married MZ Twins --- p.49 / Table 14: Within-twin-pair Fixed Effect Estimates of Happiness Using Married Male MZ Twins --- p.50 / Table 15: Within-twin-pair Fixed Effect Estimates of Happiness Using Married Female MZ Twins --- p.51

The present research examines the relationships between happiness and variables of gender, age and marital status as well as the degrees of happiness most frequently experienced by people. The sample was constituted by 163 males and females, between the ages of 20 and 60 years, single and married, and from middle class strata. They were administered the Scale of Satisfaction with Life, developed by Diener, with and added item to measure the degrees of happiness. There is no significan! statistically difference between genders; according to age the only significan contras! was between 30 and 50 years, with the notation that the highest means corresponded to ages 50 and 60 years old; married people were found to be happier than single ones. In general, the majority reported feeling happy, the other degrees contained very few frecuencies. / Se examinaron las presuntas relaciones entre felicidad, género, edad y estado conyugal; asimismo, se determinaron los niveles de felicidad que con mayor frecuencia experimentan las personas.Se trabajó con 163 sujetos de clase media, solteros y casados, de 20 a 60 años, quienes absolvieron la Escala de Satisfacción con la Vida de Diener más un ítem que indagó los niveles de felicidad.Los resultados señalan que no existen diferencias significativas entre las puntuaciones medias de felicidad de varones y mujeres. Según la edad, el único contraste significativo se encontró entre 30 y 50 años y las medias más elevadas correspondieron a los 50 y 60 años.Se halló que las personas casadas son más felices que las solteras. Finalmente, el mayor número de sujetos reportó sentirse feliz y los demás niveles agruparon muy pocas frecuencias.