Pursuit of Happiness in Consumer Society: A Study on OECD Countries and Türkiye

Abstract

Understanding the relationship between societal consumption desires and happiness levels contributes to the development of economic policies aimed at enhancing welfare. Therefore, this study, which investigates the relationship between consumption and happiness, consists of two stages. In the first stage, the happiness of economic units is measured by the Happiness Index, and consumption data is represented by the ratio of household disposable income to expenditures as provided by the OECD. Granger Causality Analysis was applied to data from 30 OECD countries, including Turkey, with continuous data availability for the period 2018-2021. The findings indicate no significant causality relationship. In the second stage, the relationship between consumption desires and happiness of economic units in Turkey was investigated using simple regression analysis. The results suggest that a 1% increase in consumption leads to an approximate 0,00287 unit decrease in happiness, indicating that an increase in the propensity to consume is associated with a decline in happiness levels. Consequently, this study finds no causality between happiness and consumption in OECD countries, while in Turkey, societal consumption desires negatively impact happiness. The findings are expected to contribute depth to the existing literature.