Happiness from social capital: An investigation from micro data in rural Thailand. Issue 4 (8th July 2016) - Rukumnuaykit, Pungpond
Abstract: Happiness is a mental or emotional state of wellbeing defined by positive or pleasant emotions ranging from contentment to intense joy. This article aims to investigate the impacts of social capital on individual wellbeing using happiness level (0–10 = highest) as a measure of subjective wellbeing and analyzing micro-level data from rural Thailand. We find significant effects of the perception of individual's social capital, while the effects of community-level social capital are found to have insignificant effects on happiness. Our findings confirm that living in a household or community in which other members are, on average, happy, would cause the person to be happy. The findings suggest that an individual's subjective perceptions of social capital, especially trusting others and participating in community public meetings, are important indicators that affect happiness at the individual level.