Does Social Trust Increase Individual Happiness in Japan?

Authors

Masanori Kuroki, Arkansas Tech UniversityFollow

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

12-1-2011

Department

School of Business

Abstract

Economists are mainly interested in trust as being growth enhancing, but whether trust is well-being enhancing is underexplored. This paper examines if trust is intrinsically valuable by using individual happiness data from Japan. I attempt to mitigate the problem of non-random selection of residents by restricting the sample to non-movers. I also address reverse causality by instrumenting trust with residential stability, as trust should be higher for a more stable community. I find that trust has positive and significant effects on individual happiness. The instrumental variables approach suggests that social trust has a causal effect on individual happiness. © 2011 Japanese Economic Association.

DOI

10.1111/j.1468-5876.2011.00533.x

First Page

444

Last Page

459

Volume

62

Issue

4

ISSN

13524739

Comments

At the time of publication, Masanori Kuroki was affiliated with University of California, Riverside.

Recommended Citation

Kuroki, M. (2011). Does social trust increase individual happiness in Japan?. Japanese Economic Review, 62(4): 444–459. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-5876.2011.00533.x