The Social-Institutional Bases of Happiness: An International Comparison

We examine the determinants of happiness from a comparative perspective. We use data from the 2002 International Social Survey Programme with roughly 40,000 individuals nested within 30 countries. We apply a multi-level modeling approach to formulate the specific interactions between the macro and micro. We focus on public social expenditures and taxes as proxy measures of state intervention at the macro-level, and happiness as the specific measure of welfare outcome at the micro-level. Our study suggests that happiness in the welfare states closely reflects the redistribution of wealth and resources in these countries. We find clear evidence that happiness is transferred from the low-risk to high-risk individuals in the welfare regimes. For example, we find that married persons are significantly happier, but single persons are significantly less happy in the welfare states. This finding suggests that pro-family ideology of the welfare states protects families from social risk and improves their well-being at the cost of single persons. Further, we find that the happiness gap between the high versus the low-income earners is considerably smaller in the welfare states, suggesting that happiness is transferred from the privileged to the less privileged. * Direct correspondences to: Hiroshi Ono, Texas A&M; University, Department of Sociology, 416 Academic Building, College Station, TX 77843-4351