Happiness is a well-researched and complex field of science. The complexity creates results that are diverse from study to study. Macro-economic variables such as income inequality, inflation and unemployment are frequently occurring. Because studies in happiness are diverse in their conclusions, we hypothesise that time-series regressions on separate western European countries will create different results. In order to find out if same macroeconomic variables affect nations average happiness differently. We created time-series regressions with robust standard errors between 1983-2020 for Denmark, Netherlands, Belgium, and France separately. Using initially mentioned variables in order to determine their effects on average happiness, taken from Veenhoven´s World Database of Happiness, our results were as diverse as previous research. The only variable that displayed consensus in its effect was inflation. Income inequality (GINI) and unemployment rate depicts all possible hypothesis, negative, positive, and no correlation depending on nation. This indicates that every country might react differently and perhaps should not be bundled together and generalized. Future research needs to be conducted in similar manner as the time-series data increases, and to further analyze if happiness is a practical and nation-comparable measure of welfare.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:UPSALLA1/oai:DiVA.org:du-42794 |
| Date | January 2022 |
| Creators | Hansson, Jesper, Olsson, Simon |
| Publisher | Högskolan Dalarna, Institutionen för kultur och samhälle |
| Source Sets | DiVA Archive at Upsalla University |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Student thesis, info:eu-repo/semantics/bachelorThesis, text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Rights | info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess |
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