National Happiness and Genetic Distance: A Cautious Exploration

Arbeitspapier

This paper examines a famous puzzle in social science. Why do some nations report such high happiness? Denmark, for instance, regularly tops the league table of rich nations' well-being; Great Britain and the US enter further down; France and Italy do relatively poorly. Yet the explanation for this ranking - one that holds even after adjustment for GDP and socio-economic and cultural variables - remains unknown. We explore a new avenue. Using data on 131 countries, we document a range of evidence consistent with the hypothesis that certain nations may have a genetic advantage in well-being.

Object Details

• Language: Englisch

References and Relationships

• Bibliographic citation: Series: IZA Discussion Papers ; No. 8300

Classification and Topics

• Classification: Wirtschaft ; Welfare, Well-Being, and Poverty: General ; General Welfare; Well-Being
• Subject: well-being ; international ; happiness ; genes ; GDP

Contributors, Places and Time

• Event: Geistige Schöpfung
• (who): Proto, Eugenio ; Oswald, Andrew J.
• Event: Veröffentlichung
• (who): Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA)
• (where): Bonn
• (when): 2014

Further information

• Handle: http://hdl.handle.net/10419/101858
• Last update: 10.03.2025, 11:44 AM CET