Relationship Between Life Satisfaction and Economic Growth

Weisheng Zhou, Xiangwei Lin and Xuepeng Qian
Additional contact information
Weisheng Zhou: Ritsumeikan University
Xiangwei Lin: Research Institute of Global 3E
Xuepeng Qian: Sophia University

Chapter Chapter 3 in Foundations of Quantitative Happiness, 2025, pp 37-68 from Springer

Abstract: Abstract In this chapter, to elucidate the relationship between life satisfaction and economic growth, we conducted an econometric analysis of the relationship between the Gini coefficient and the rate of economic growth, as well as GDP, which is not merely the total income. First, although the “Eastern Paradox” phenomenon, in which the percentage of people satisfied with their lives does not increase in proportion to a large increase in GDP per capita (PPP equivalent), was reproduced in Japan from a macro perspective, a slight upward trend was observed. On the micro level, we found that the percentage of respondents who are satisfied with their lives tends to be linked to the economic growth rate and has a positive correlation with the economic growth in the previous year. In addition, the “$8000 phenomenon,” in which the percentage of respondents who attach importance to “spiritual wealth” rises above that of “material wealth” once Japan’s per capita disposable income (PPP equivalent) exceeds the $8000 level, was verified for the first time in China, where economic conditions and social systems differ from those in Japan.

Date: 2025
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

There are no downloads for this item, see the EconPapers FAQ for hints about obtaining it.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:spr:sprchp:978-981-96-1717-3_3

Ordering information: This item can be ordered from
http://www.springer.com/9789819617173

DOI: 10.1007/978-981-96-1717-3_3

Access Statistics for this chapter

More chapters in Springer Books from Springer
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().