In Europe differences among countries in the overall change in happiness since the early 1980s have been due chiefly to … the generosity of welfare state programs - increasing happiness going with increasing generosity and declining happiness … impression that economic growth, social capital, and / or quality of the environment are driving happiness trends, but in the …

Many studies document a large negative effect of unemployment on happiness. Recent research has looked into factors … related to impacts on happiness, such as adaptation, social work norms, social capital, religious beliefs, and psychological … resources. Getting unemployed people back to work can do more for their happiness than compensating them for doing nothing. But …

Answers to the Eurobarometer question on Life Satisfaction are used to explore the effects of macroeconomic performance … between 2004 and 2011. It is found that variations in national levels of life satisfaction can largely be accounted by a small … number of socio-economic indicators. Life satisfaction is lowest in poor, corrupt countries where income inequality is …

This paper presents evidence on causal influence of happiness on social capital and trust using German Socio …-Economic Panel. Exploiting the unexplained cross-sectional variation in individual happiness (residuals) in 1984 to eliminate the … neighborhood, and extend more help to others. Residual happiness appears to be an indicator of optimism, and has an inverse U …