Impact of socioeconomic conditions on happiness: Evidence from emerging market economies

The objective of the present study is to examine the impact of socioeconomic conditions on happiness in 21 Emerging Market Economies (EMEs) with the help of three sub-samples comprising America, Asia, and EMEA (Europe, Middle East, and Africa) countries from 2006 to 2019. For this objective, panel corrected standard error model is used to resolve the problem of cross-sectional dependence, group-wise heteroscedasticity, and panel autocorrelation. The results of the study reveal that economic growth plays a positive role in determining the happiness of EMEs of America and EMEA sample countries. At the same time, globalisation and inflation affect the happiness of people in American sample countries in a negative way. In the sample of Asian countries, social support has a substantial impact on happiness. Corruption in the government and business sectors reduces the happiness of selected countries of both Asia and America. This article contributes to the existing literature by first time considering EMEs which have undergone liberalisation reforms and experienced transformation in their socioeconomic conditions. In conclusion, the study suggests that GDP per capita and social support positively stimulates happiness while the perception of corruption negatively impacts happiness in selected EMEs. These implications can help in building a line of actions for strengthening anti-corruption institutions and promoting social integrations among these EMEs.