Is Happiness Infectious?

John Knight and Ramani Gunatilaka

No 446, Economics Series Working Papers from University of Oxford, Department of Economics

Abstract: The paper uses an appropriate survey from rural China to answer the question: Is happiness infectious, i.e. does the happiness of an individual depend positively on the happiness of their reference group? The evidence is consistent with this hypothesis, but the challenge is to solve the 'reflection problem', i.e. is the apparent effect of neighbours' happiness on own happinessa causal one or merely a reflection? A 'quasi-panel' approach is adopted, treating villages as groups and individuals as multiple observations within each group, and using an error components 2SLS estimator. The results suggest that a major part of the relationship is indeed causal: Adam Smith's insight was correct! The normative and policy implications are briefly considered.

Keywords: Happiness; Social interaction; Relative deprivation; China (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: D01 D60 D64 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2009-08-01
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-cna, nep-hap, nep-soc and nep-tra
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (11)

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Journal Article: Is Happiness Infectious? (2017)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:oxf:wpaper:446

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