Demystifying the nexus between Forest cover and happiness: A study of global economies

Abstract

The quest for happiness is a fundamental human goal, recognized by the United Nations (UN). Understanding the importance of happiness, our study aims to examine the impact of economic, environment, social and political factors in influencing happiness among sixty economies observed over eleven years. Using Generalised method of moments (GMM) and Panel quantile regression (PQR) methodology, our results show that forest cover, GDP per capita, inflation, unemployment, freedom to make life choices, social support and perception of corruption play a significant role in determining happiness. We find that GDP per capita, freedom to make life choices and social support have direct and positive association with happiness while unemployment rate, inflation and perception of corruption negatively influence happiness. However, while using PQR technique in the case of forest cover, we found mixed results; forest cover is significantly and positively related with happiness at 10%, 50% and 75% quantiles whereas negatively related with happiness at 25% and 90% quantiles. We also observe that social support is a major determinant of happiness. The current study identifies objective and subjective indicators to determine overall happiness and recommends hedonic wellbeing policymaking.