Happiness and Health in Europe: A Multivariate Multilevel Model

Most studies of well-being use happiness or health as a single outcome. They either explain happiness in terms of health (and other factors) or conversely explain health in terms of happiness. Moreover, only a few studies include contextual explanations of well-being. This study investigates the individual, regional and national covariations in happiness and health. In doing so, we use multivariate multilevel model to explain happiness and health. We study 47 countries across Europe using the 2008 European Values Study. The problem of missing data has been solved using multilevel multiple imputation. We find that the determinants of both happiness and health are quite similar. At individual, regional and national levels, happiness and health are positively correlated. Being married, being educated, and being affluent are positively associated with being happy and being healthy. Conversely, individual unemployment and regional unemployment rates are negatively associated with happiness and health © 2014 Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht and The International Society for Quality-of-Life Studies (ISQOLS).