An Analysis of Socio-Economic Factors Affecting Happiness (An Econometric Analysis with Regard to Religious Restrictions)

For many economists, an increase in happiness in society will lead to a rise in the level of productivity, and consequently economic growth and higher welfare. Thus, they seek to find factors that boost the level of happiness in society. Accordingly, in this article we decided to find the socio-economic factors affecting happiness. For this purpose, the income per capita, unemployment rate, life expectancy, mean years of schooling and religious restriction variables and GLS estimator and cross-sectional data in 61 countries in 2010 were used. The results showed a linear relationship between per capita income and happiness, so that with the increase of income, happiness increases. The unemployment rate has a negative effect and the average years of schooling, at a significantly lower level than othervariables in the model, has a positive impact on happiness. Increased
government restrictions and social hostilities, as indexes for measuring religious restrictions in communities, were associated with less happiness. A general conclusion from the analysis of socio-economic factors affecting happiness can be that richer countries, with lower unemployment rates, less religious restrictions and higher life expectancy and education, are happier.