Happiness, Prosperity and Inequality in the 21st Century: The Case of Latin America
(2020) EKHS34 20201Department of Economic History
- Abstract
- Latin American countries are among the happiest countries world-wide despite suffering from vast economic inequality at the same time. Addressing this alleged puzzle, this study analyses the effects of economic prosperity and inequality on happiness in Latin America. Using a pooled dataset of annual surveys from the Latinobarómetro between 2005 and 2018, an advanced three-level model with individuals nested within country-years nested within countries was applied. It was found that: (1) Neither inequality nor economic growth exhibit a direct effect on an individual’s happiness but affect it negatively if one is accompanied by the other. (2) Relative wealth comparisons with one’s social class are important for Latin Americans. (3)... (More)
- Latin American countries are among the happiest countries world-wide despite suffering from vast economic inequality at the same time. Addressing this alleged puzzle, this study analyses the effects of economic prosperity and inequality on happiness in Latin America. Using a pooled dataset of annual surveys from the Latinobarómetro between 2005 and 2018, an advanced three-level model with individuals nested within country-years nested within countries was applied. It was found that: (1) Neither inequality nor economic growth exhibit a direct effect on an individual’s happiness but affect it negatively if one is accompanied by the other. (2) Relative wealth comparisons with one’s social class are important for Latin Americans. (3) Within-social-class inequality affects the happiness of people from a low (high) social class positively (negatively), while between-social-class inequality affects it negatively (positively). Lastly, (4) perceived social mobility constitutes a crucial moderator for the effects of actual inequality on happiness. These results imply that Latin American policy makers should continue to aim for decoupling economic growth and increases in inequality while creating equal opportunities regarding social mobility for their citizens, so that especially the poor do not feel left behind. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
http://lup.lub.lu.se/student-papers/record/9020907
- author
- Schönberg, Frank LU
- supervisor
- organization
- course
- EKHS34 20201
- year
- 2020
- type
- H1 - Master's Degree (One Year)
- subject
- keywords
- Happiness, Prosperity, (Perceived) Inequality, Latin America, Multilevel Modelling
- language
- English
- id
- 9020907
- date added to LUP
- 2020-07-03 12:01:52
- date last changed
- 2021-01-11 10:59:26
@misc{9020907,
abstract = {{Latin American countries are among the happiest countries world-wide despite suffering from vast economic inequality at the same time. Addressing this alleged puzzle, this study analyses the effects of economic prosperity and inequality on happiness in Latin America. Using a pooled dataset of annual surveys from the Latinobarómetro between 2005 and 2018, an advanced three-level model with individuals nested within country-years nested within countries was applied. It was found that: (1) Neither inequality nor economic growth exhibit a direct effect on an individual’s happiness but affect it negatively if one is accompanied by the other. (2) Relative wealth comparisons with one’s social class are important for Latin Americans. (3) Within-social-class inequality affects the happiness of people from a low (high) social class positively (negatively), while between-social-class inequality affects it negatively (positively). Lastly, (4) perceived social mobility constitutes a crucial moderator for the effects of actual inequality on happiness. These results imply that Latin American policy makers should continue to aim for decoupling economic growth and increases in inequality while creating equal opportunities regarding social mobility for their citizens, so that especially the poor do not feel left behind.}},
author = {{Schönberg, Frank}},
language = {{eng}},
note = {{Student Paper}},
title = {{Happiness, Prosperity and Inequality in the 21st Century: The Case of Latin America}},
year = {{2020}},
}