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No 2009:132:
Are happier people better citizens?

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Cahit Guven ()
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Cahit Guven: Deakin University, Postal: School of Accounting, Economics, and Finance, Deakin University, Australia.

Abstract: This paper presents evidence on causal in uence of happiness on social capital and trust using German Socio-Economic Panel. Exploiting the unex- plained cross-sectional variation in individual happiness (residuals) in 1984 to eliminate the endogeneity problem, the paper nds that happier people trust others more, and importantly, help create more social capital. Specif- ically, they have a higher desire to vote, perform more volunteer work, and more frequently participate in public activities. They also have a higher respect for law and order, hold more association memberships, are more attached to their neighborhood, and extend more help to others. Residual happiness appears to be an indicator of optimism, and has an inverse U- shaped relationship with social capital measures. The ndings also suggest that the relationship between happiness and social capital strengthened in the world in the last decade.

Keywords: Happiness; trust; social capital; optimism

Language: English

54 pages, 2009

Note: Available online at: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:diw:diwsop:diw_sp199&r=soc

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RePEc:hhh:senior:2009_132 This page was generated 2009-11-02 09:56:59