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Happiness, democracy and socio-economic conditions: Evidence from a difference GMM estimator

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  • Paleologou, Suzanna-Maria

Abstract

Human beings have always striven to be happy. For hundreds of years people have been thinking and researching what makes them happy and so do economists interested in the impact of economic and political conditions on happiness. This paper contributes to the strand of empirical literature by proposing the use of a different methodological approach, the GMM, to tackle two significant methodological issues, namely those of misspecification and endogeneity, and to re-evaluate the impact of a number of economic and political conditions on the average happiness of nations in a dynamic panel data framework. Our findings suggest that there is mixed evidence regarding the impact of real GDP per capita on happiness, which is negative for the full sample and positive for the high-income countries. In relation to the impact of democracy and the electoral processes, we find support of a positive impact only for the full sample and the high-income countries. Nevertheless, we do not find statistically significant evidence in relation to the effect of the prevalence of corruption on happiness.

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  • Paleologou, Suzanna-Maria, 2022. "Happiness, democracy and socio-economic conditions: Evidence from a difference GMM estimator," Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics (formerly The Journal of Socio-Economics), Elsevier, vol. 101(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:soceco:v:101:y:2022:i:c:s2214804322001161
    DOI: 10.1016/j.socec.2022.101945
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