National happiness and Environment quality in Africa

Using Ordinary Least Squares, the Generalized Method of Moments and Estimate fixed-effect panel threshold model, this paper analyses the effect of environment on happiness in a panel of 30 African countries over the period 2006-2014. We find that environment quality affects happiness. The linear model shows that actually the degradation of environment increase happiness. However, the Estimate fixed-effect panel threshold model concludes that the relation between happiness and Greenhouse Gas are not a linear but quadratic. The estimation of quadratic equation revealed that this relationship takes the form of an inverted U. These results mean that in the long run environment negatively affects the happiness of people in Africa. Thus, the effect of environmental quality on happiness in Africa depends on the level of Greenhouse Gas emissions and the level of income per capita.