Hypertension and Happiness across Nations

David Blanchflower and Andrew Oswald

No 269777, Economic Research Papers from University of Warwick - Department of Economics

Abstract: In surveys of well-being, countries such as Denmark and the Netherlands emerge as particularly happy while nations like Germany and Italy report lower levels of happiness. But are these kinds of findings credible? This paper provides some evidence that the answer is yes. Using data on 16 countries, it shows that happier nations report systematically lower levels of hypertension. As well as potentially validating the differences in measured happiness across nations, this suggests that blood-pressure readings might be valuable as part of a national well-being index. A new ranking of European nations’ GHQ N6 mental-health scores is also given.

Keywords: Health Economics and Policy; Labor and Human Capital (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 35
Date: 2007-06-15
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (15)

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Related works:
Journal Article: Hypertension and happiness across nations (2008)
Working Paper: Hypertension and Happiness across Nations (2007)
Working Paper: Hypertension and Happiness across Nations (2007)
Working Paper: Hypertension and Happiness across Nations (2007)
Working Paper: Hypertension and Happiness across Nations (2007)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:ags:uwarer:269777

DOI: 10.22004/ag.econ.269777

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