A Study Of The Effects Of Economic Development On The National Happiness

GDP is an important index which can be used to describe the level of a country’s developmentand progress.For a long time,the community generally believed that the more the GDP growed,thebetter the the country’s economic would be,and the happier the citizens would feel.However, inrecent years,more and more studies show that there is great disparity between the economicdevelopment and the improvement of people’s well-being. GDP is an economic index whichmeasures the total economic output of a country.It is no longer appropriate to be treated as an indexwhich is used to measure the national well-being.Since the reform and opening,GDP became the core of China’s economic developmentindicators.Our country has achieved rapid development of economy,the nationals living standardshave gained to a huge raise. But along with the remarkable economic achievements, many newproblems have begun to emerge and haunt us, including environmental pollution,employmentpressure,social justice,health care and so on. These problems seriously damage the nationals’quality of life and living environment,and destruct the nationals’ happiness greatly.The paper firstly analyzes the impact of various factors on the national happiness from themicro individual level. Learned from the definition of "Gross National Happiness" of the Bhutanmode, the influencing factors from six aspects are selected.After Removing the dimension,we usefactor analysis and define our country’s Gross National Happiness Index.Then, at the nationalmacro level, the appropriate economic and social development indicators are selected as theinfluencing factors. Time series models are established to study the empirical analysis of economicdevelopment on our national well-being.After that,three provinces are selected,which is used torepresent the three regions:the eastern,western,central of China.Then we create a panel data modelto study the influence of the economic development on the national well-being from the geographicview.After that, the panel data model is expanded and improved to study the influence from timeperiod view. The empirical results confirm the following conclusions:1. The national happiness isgreater in the economically developed areas than that in the economically underdevelopedareas;2.The economic development play a promoting role in different regions.The effects is greaterin the economically underdeveloped regions.3. The economic development play a promoting rolein different time period.The effects is greater in the poor economic times.This paper points out that China’s economic success is based on an extensive developmentmodel. Economic development is gained at the expense of the environment, resources, and social costs. Even though this model can quickly boost economic growth, it is difficult to enhance thenational happiness. Meanwhile, the paper points out that the purpose of economic development isto achieve the improvement of the national happiness.GDP is an economic indicator,which shallnot be abandoned.It shall not be used to define the concept of "national happiness "either.