What is Happiness? Basic Socio-Economic Factors of Life Satisfaction.

<p>The first and second part of the dissertation examine existing sources of information, describes the general theoretical approaches to study happiness. The third section is devoted to a possible evaluation methods and sources of data. The final chapter is devoted to the description of data sources and the results analysis of empirical modeling of factors affecting the life satisfaction of various age population cohorts in the Russian Federation.</p><p>The aim of the empirical part is to identify differences in the perception of happiness between elderly aged and young groups.</p><p>We can assume that life satisfaction of the elderly population may be associated with fewer determinants than happiness of younger groups.</p><p>Therefore, the main hypothesis is the existence of differences in the determinants of happiness for the representatives of different age groups.</p><p>In contrast to the work done previously, the study does not focus on a gender analysis.</p><p>Study of Global Ageing and Adult Health (SAGE) is used for empirical estimates.</p><p>The hypothesis is tested using regression estimates of logit models separately for groups of older and younger SAGE&rsquo;s respondents.</p><p>As a result we have the following conclusions.</p><p>1. Determinants affecting the level of happiness of different age cohorts do differ. For example, getting government&rsquo;s help in the form of allowances, pensions or health services increases life satisfaction of younger population, and there is no reason to assume that this factor is associated with the happiness of older respondents.</p><p>2. Factors of life satisfaction of various age groups differ not only qualitatively but also quantitatively. That is to say, the life satisfaction of the elderly population is associated with fewer determinants than the happiness of the younger group.</p><p>3. It becomes clear that there is a limited number of factors which are equally positively correlated with the level of life satisfaction of people of all ages. In this paper we identified such factors as the ability to perform everyday activities without any difficulties, satisfaction with personal relationships, material well-being and sense of security.</p>