A Cross-national Study on How Corruption Affects Happiness

Abstract: Corruption and subjective well-being are of interest to scholars, governments, and legislators. The study builds on existing literature that explores the interplay between economic, cultural, and political factors and happiness, with a particular focus on the less-examined role of governance quality, as measured by corruption levels. While scholars generally see corruption as a predictor of happiness, the direction of that effect is unclear. Using cross-national data from 133 countries, this paper investigates the impact of corruption on individuals happiness. Employing an Ordinary Least Squares (OLS) regression analysis, the research controls for other critical variables such as GDP, democracy index, and education, and tests the hypothesis that lower corruption is associated with higher happiness. The perceived corruption is statistically significant on predicting happiness when it is solely considered, but the situation changed when controlling GDP. The paper reveals that economy plays important role as a intervening variables between corruption and happiness. The paper is a helpful guides for policymakers and governments in making effective anti-corruption measures for enhancing happiness at a national level.