The Social-Institutional Bases of Happiness: An International Comparison

Hiroshi Ono, Texas A&M University
Kristen S. Lee, University at Buffalo, State University of New York (SUNY)

We examine determinants of happiness from a comparative perspective. We use data from ISSP 2002 with 40,000 individuals nested within 30 countries. We apply multi-level modeling to formulate specific interactions between the macro and micro. We focus on public social expenditures and taxes as proxies of state intervention at the macro-level, and happiness as the specific measure of welfare outcome at the micro-level. Results suggest that happiness in the welfare states reflects the redistribution of resources in these countries, namely that happiness is transferred from the low-risk to high-risk individuals. For example, married persons are significantly happier, but singles are significantly less happy in the welfare states. This suggests that pro-family ideology of welfare states improves their well-being at the cost of single persons. The happiness gap between high versus low-income earners is smaller in the welfare states, suggesting that happiness is transferred from the privileged to the less privileged.