Happiness Economics: The Role, Opinions and Evaluations by Young People

Searching for the sources of economic growth and stimulating economic activity of people, especially the youth, in the context of a transition to a new technological mode in modern Russia are the main priorities for economic science. Encouraging economic activity under new conditions is associated with a search for novel sources and direction for implementation. From this standpoint, economic policy is of special importance since it ensures welfare and other aspects of happiness as an economic phenomenon. The article focuses on the economic category of happiness, as well as the issues of objective and subjective assessments of happiness by the young audience. The purpose of the paper is to examine the economic phenomenon of happiness from the perspective of subjective assessments of the younger generation and to identify general objective factors and conditions that determine happiness. The authors apply the quantitative and qualitative methods of statistical analysis: time series, the ranking method, rank correlation, correlation and regression analysis and econometric modeling. We rank socio-economic factors, material wealth and conditions that create happiness, study subjective opinions of young people about happiness, and establish general objective factors and conditions of happiness of the younger generation. The authors also reveal that material conditions and socio-psychological factors are the elements of a single system which, when interacting, produce a synergy effect generating a qualitatively new motivation for enhancing economic activity that ensures effective self-realization, especially among young people.