The Impact of Ecological Footprint, Energy Consumption, and Economic Stability on Happiness: Evidence from BRICS-T Countries

The main objective of this study is to analyze the impact of ecological footprint, fossil fuel energy consumption, renewable energy consumption and economic stability on happiness in BRICS-T countries for the years between 2015-2022 with the help of methods that take into account cross-section dependence and also can be used for heterogeneous panels. In this context, Dynamic SUR and AMG estimators are used to determine whether there is a long-run relationship among the variables. As a results of the analysis, there is a difference for individual and panel results. The individual results show that the variables considered in the analysis are statistically significant and there are differences among countries. Also, panel results indicate that factors that increase environmental pollution, such as an increase in ecological footprint and fossil fuel energy consumption negatively affect happiness, while reducing environmental pollution like a rise in renewable energy consumption, and improvement in economic conditions, like an increase in economic stability increases happiness.