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A Tale of Three Countries: What is the Relationship Between COVID‐19, Lockdown and Happiness?

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  • Talita Greyling
  • Stephanie Rossouw
  • Tamanna Adhikari

Abstract

The COVID‐19 pandemic led many governments to implement lockdown regulations to curb the spread of the virus. Though lockdowns do minimise the physical damage caused by the virus, there may also be substantial damage to population well‐being. Using a pooled data set, we analyse the relationship between a mandatory lockdown and happiness in three diverse countries: South Africa, New Zealand and Australia. These countries differ amongst others in terms of lockdown regulations and duration. The primary aim is to determine, whether a lockdown is negatively associated with happiness, notwithstanding the characteristics of a country or the strictness of the lockdown regulations. Second, we compare the effect size of the lockdown on happiness between these countries. We use Difference‐in‐Difference estimations to determine the association between lockdown and happiness and a Least Squares Dummy Variable estimation to study the heterogeneity in the effect size of the lockdown by country. Our results show that a lockdown is associated with a decline in happiness, regardless of the characteristics of the country or the type and duration of its lockdown regulations. Furthermore, the effect size differs between countries in the sense that the more stringent the stay‐at‐home regulations are, the greater it seems to be.

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  • Talita Greyling & Stephanie Rossouw & Tamanna Adhikari, 2021. "A Tale of Three Countries: What is the Relationship Between COVID‐19, Lockdown and Happiness?," South African Journal of Economics, Economic Society of South Africa, vol. 89(1), pages 25-43, March.
    • Handle: RePEc:bla:sajeco:v:89:y:2021:i:1:p:25-43
    DOI: 10.1111/saje.12284
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Rossouw, Stephanie & Greyling, Talita & Adhikari, Tamanna & Morrison, Phillip S., 2020. "Markov switching models for happiness during a pandemic: The New-Zealand experience," GLO Discussion Paper Series 573, Global Labor Organization (GLO).
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    2. Eran Feitelson & Pnina Plaut & Eli Salzberger & Deborah Shmueli & Alex Altshuler & Michal Ben-Gal & Fabian Israel & Yonat Rein-Sapir & Danielle Zaychik, 2022. "The Effects of COVID-19 on Wellbeing: Evidence from Israel," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(7), pages 1-17, March.
    3. Krzysztof Drachal & Daniel González Cortés, 2022. "Estimation of Lockdowns’ Impact on Well-Being in Selected Countries: An Application of Novel Bayesian Methods and Google Search Queries Data," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 20(1), pages 1-24, December.
    4. Kohnert, Dirk, 2022. "Les Africains, sont-ils heureux ? « Retour au rire » en temps de guerre, de famine et de misère [Are Africans happy? 'Return to laughter' in times of war, famine and misery]," MPRA Paper 112941, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    5. Sarracino, Francesco & Greyling, Talita & O'Connor, Kelsey J. & Peroni, Chiara & Rossouw, Stephanie, 2024. "Trust predicts compliance with COVID-19 containment policies: Evidence from ten countries using big data," Economics & Human Biology, Elsevier, vol. 54(C).
    6. Khwan Kim & Noah Askin & James A. Evans, 2023. "Disrupted Routines Anticipate Musical Exploration," Papers 2301.03716, arXiv.org.
    7. Kohnert, Dirk, 2022. "Are Africans happy? 'Return to laughter' in times of war, famine and misery," MPRA Paper 112940, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    8. Kerianne Lawson, 2022. "Electricity outages and residential fires: Evidence from Cape Town, South Africa," South African Journal of Economics, Economic Society of South Africa, vol. 90(4), pages 469-485, December.
    9. Jana Majerova & Lubica Gajanova & Margareta Nadanyiova & Anita Kolnhofer Derecskei, 2021. "Intrinsic Motivation Sources as Pillars of Sustainable Internal Marketing Communication in Turbulent Post-Pandemic Times," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(16), pages 1-17, August.
    10. Turgut Karakose & Tuncay Yavuz Ozdemir & Stamatios Papadakis & Ramazan Yirci & Secil Eda Ozkayran & Hakan Polat, 2022. "Investigating the Relationships between COVID-19 Quality of Life, Loneliness, Happiness, and Internet Addiction among K-12 Teachers and School Administrators—A Structural Equation Modeling Approach," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(3), pages 1-20, January.
    11. Antje Jantsch & Gertrud Buchenrieder & Thomas Dufhues & Judith Möllers, 2024. "Social Comparisons Under Pandemic Stress: Income Reference Groups, Comparison Patterns, and the Subjective Well-Being of German Students," Journal of Happiness Studies, Springer, vol. 25(7), pages 1-24, October.
    12. Philip S. Morrison & Stephanié Rossouw & Talita Greyling, 2022. "The impact of exogenous shocks on national wellbeing. New Zealanders’ reaction to COVID-19," Applied Research in Quality of Life, Springer;International Society for Quality-of-Life Studies, vol. 17(3), pages 1787-1812, June.

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