Development of the indicative system for assessing the «happiness» level using global indexes, including human capital

A comprehensive comparative study was conducted of the impact on the World Happiness Index (WHI) of ten global Predictor Indices: The highest pair correlation with WHI is characterized by the Predictors: GDP per capita (GDP/С), Legatum Prosperity Index (LPI) and Index of Economic Freedom (IEF). However, none of them provides a satisfactory correlation with WHI (determination coefficient - R2 no more than 0.74 for a sample of 24 countries with the highest GDP). The dependence of WHI on a number of Predictors has two lows with a trend in the form of a fifth degree polynomial, which characterizes the characteristics of the dynamics of the level of happiness with an improvement in well-being. The dependence of the World Happiness Index on Predictors, which is a linear combination of two indices, is studied. Among them, the smallest regression error - ΔR2 = 1 - R2 (13%) is provided by the composition of Worldwide Governance Indicators (WGI) and GDP / D (40% of the contribution). Among the Predictors formed from multiple indices, the smallest regression error with WHI is provided by the Predictor, which includes 35% WGI, 30% GDP/С, 14% IEF, 9% LPI and 12% human capital indices. It provides low regression error ΔR2 = 7.4% for a sample of the 12 largest countries by GDP, and for the average regression error for samples from 6, 12, 24 and 48 countries - ΔR2 = 11.4% Deviation of the level of happiness calculated from the regression model from World Happiness data Index for Russia, China, USA and Germany does not exceed 3%.

Happiness Index, regression analysis, correlation, modeling, forecasting, GDP per capita, happiness economy, human capital, Happiness Index