1 Introduction
1.1 Research questions
1.2 Plan of this paper
2 Happiness in Nations
2.1 Concept
2.2 Measurement
2.3 Data-source
2.4 Reliability and Validity of Self-reported Happiness
2.5 Complications
3 Quality of Governments in Nations
3.1 Concept
Voice + Acc. | Political stability | Gov. effective | Regulatory quality | Rule of law | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Voice + accountability | X | ||||
Political stability | 0.69 | X | |||
Government effectiveness | 0.81 | 0.77 | X | ||
Regulatory quality | 0.85 | 0.75 | 0.95 | X | |
Rule of law | 0.80 | 0.78 | 0.97 | 0.94 | X |
Control of corruption | 0.79 | 0.77 | 0.96 | 0.91 | 0.98 |
3.2 Measurement
3.3 Data-source
4 Size of Governments in Nations
4.1 Concept
4.2 Measurement
4.3 Data-source
5 Correlation Between Quality and Size of Governments and Average Happiness
5.1 Quality
Government characteristics | Zero-order | Control technical quality | Control democratic quality | Control size of government | Control wealth |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Technical quality | +0.75 | X | +0.58 | +0.68 | +0.14 |
Democratic quality | +0.61 | −0.17 | X | +0.50 | +0.04 |
Size of government | +0.46 | +0.10 | +0.30 | X | +0.03 |
5.2 Size
6 What About Causality?
6.1 Spurious Correlation?
6.2 Causality: Impact of Happiness on Government Quality?
6.3 Causality: Impact of Government Quality on Happiness?
7 Specification of Causality: Direct and Indirect Effects
Conditions | Correlations with average happiness | Correlations with technical quality | Partial correlation technical quality average happiness |
---|---|---|---|
Wealth | +0.80 | +0.89 | +0.14 |
Gender equality | +0.79 | +0.75 | +0.39 |
Safety and health | +0.75 | +0.70 | +0.47 |
Gross school enrollment-ratio | +0.73 | +0.70 | +0.49 |
Economic freedom | +0.62 | +0.79 | +0.53 |
Unemployment | −0.40 | −0.26 | +0.73 |
Income-inequality (gini) | −0.29 | −0.41 | +0.72 |
8 Good Governance and Inequality in Happiness in Nations
8.1 Less Inequality with Technical Good Governance?
8.2 Size of Government and Inequality?
All nations | Technical quality < 0 | Technical quality > 0 |
---|---|---|
−0.23
116
| +0.02
69
| −0.46
47
|