Happiness lies in income? The case of self-employed Lithuanians

Aim: This paper’s goal was to single out the main links among happiness and income in a study of the self-employed in Lithuania by analysing the theoretical aspects of happiness and income and presenting the results of empirical study. Methodology: The empirical study was carried out using statistical data analysis, correlation analysis and binary logistic regression. A survey and time diary were used to collect data for the empirical study. The number of self-employed Lithuanians who participated in the study was 1073. Results: The study on the links between happiness and income among the self-employed individuals revealed that their net monthly income did not meet their expectations, which can have a negative impact on their job satisfaction, personal life and happiness. It was also found that monthly net income had a statistically significant positive effect on the happiness of the self-employed individuals (95% probability). Implications and recommendations: Having analysed the relationship between happiness and income among the self-employed in Lithuania, potential future research directions could be related to applying a similar empirical idea to another study of population and/or country. The findings could be useful at macroeconomic level for government representatives to improve social security and labour policies and strategies, etc. Originality/value: There is disagreement in the scientific literature about the theoretical and practical relationship between happiness and income, thus it is important to empirically examine a specific case to support or refute theoretical concepts. This paper examined the relationship between happiness and income of self-employed individuals in Lithuania – it was chosen precisely because there are very few studies of this type in the country, and/or these studies mainly concentrated on diverse groups of individuals, time frame, etc. Another point regarding the originality and value of this study was the use of the harmonised European time use survey (HETUS) methodology, but in order to achieve the research objective, the methodological aspects of the paper were also based on the authors’ contribution.