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Are Poor People Less Happy? Findings from Melanesia

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  • Feeny, Simon
  • McDonald, Lachlan
  • Posso, Alberto

Abstract

Measures of happiness are increasingly being used to inform development policy. This is particularly true in Melanesia where linkages between income and life satisfaction can be weak due to the dominance of semi-subsistence lifestyles. This paper examines the happiness of households in two Melanesian countries: Solomon Islands and Vanuatu. The focus is on whether the poor are less happy. Findings indicate that wealth, increases in earnings, relative wealth, employment, and living on communally owned land are positively associated with happiness. Household size and food insecurity have a negative association. There is also strong support for poor households being less happy.

Suggested Citation

  • Feeny, Simon & McDonald, Lachlan & Posso, Alberto, 2014. "Are Poor People Less Happy? Findings from Melanesia," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 64(C), pages 448-459.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:wdevel:v:64:y:2014:i:c:p:448-459
    DOI: 10.1016/j.worlddev.2014.06.022
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    2. Alberto Posso & Simon Feeny, 2016. "Beyond enrolments: the determinants of primary-school attendance in Melanesia," Journal of the Asia Pacific Economy, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 21(4), pages 531-548, October.
    3. Forzani, Liliana & García Arancibia, Rodrigo & Llop, Pamela & Tomassi, Diego, 2018. "Supervised dimension reduction for ordinal predictors," Computational Statistics & Data Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 125(C), pages 136-155.
    4. Ferdi Botha & Edwin Wouters & Frikkie Booysen, 2018. "Happiness, Socioeconomic Status, and Family Functioning in South African Households: a Structural Equation Modelling Approach," Applied Research in Quality of Life, Springer;International Society for Quality-of-Life Studies, vol. 13(4), pages 947-989, December.
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