Felicidad y salud: una aproximación al bienestar en el Río de la Plata

In this study we analyze data on happiness to find out the relationship between this issue and others aspects of life, based on the Latinobarometro 2004 for Argentina and Uruguay. The focus is put on self-reported health status as a key aspect in increasing happiness levels, although we also analyze the relationship between happiness and income, age, gender, education, employment status and religiosity. Then, the probabilty of being happy is econometrically estimated by probit models for each country and the region. Results show that the main relationship is between happiness and health status. Whether this is a causal effect or only a correlation, is not clear. This issue is explored by using propensity score matching methods, finding that reporting a good health status increases the probability of being satisfied with life by 31 and 46 percentage points in Uruguay, 15 and 27 percentage points in Argentina; and between 17 and 27 percentage points for the pool data. According to previous literature, we find that the relationship between age and happiness is U-shaped, with happiness being lowest in the age of 52.