Title: Happiness and air pollution: evidence from 14 European countries

Authors: Byron Lew; B. Mak Arvin

Addresses: Department of Economics, Trent University, Peterborough, Ontario, Canada ' Department of Economics, Trent University, Peterborough, Ontario, Canada

Abstract: The causal relationship between happiness and air pollution is examined using a sample of 14 European countries. Two sets of results are presented using the notion of Granger causality. For individual countries, the existence of a unidirectional or bidirectional causal structure for almost half of the countries can be observed. The panel approach, on the other hand, provides some support for the existence of bidirectional causality between happiness and air pollution for the region taken as-a-whole.

Keywords: happiness; air pollution; political rights; Granger causality; Europe; air quality.

DOI: 10.1504/IJGE.2012.051492

International Journal of Green Economics, 2012 Vol.6 No.4, pp.331 - 345

Published online: 12 Dec 2014 *

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