Is public service one of the determinants of happiness: Evidence from Turkey in province level

Abstract

Introduction The economics of happiness is a branch of public economics that explores how individuals can improve their life satisfaction by using public policies. One of the standard hypotheses in microeconomic theory is that, ceteris paribus, the more individuals have preferences, the higher they have the quality of life. Individuals who have more preferences over actions will maximize their own well-being. Higher income is associated with the number of preferences and hence higher income level will mean higher happiness. Marginal utility is defined as the change in total utility with consumption of an additional unit of goods or service. According to the law of decreasing marginal utility, the marginal utility gradually decreases as the consumption of a good or service is increased in equal amounts. For this reason, individuals who want to increase their happiness must increase their utility which is directly proportional to the variety of goods or services individuals have. Besides, the literature on economics of happiness indicates that there can be many variables that affect an individual’s level of happiness. Individual health, public health policies, individual safety, and social life are just a few of them. Easterlin (2013) asks three specific questions regarding happiness: 1. Are economic growth policies enough in themselves to raise people’s happiness, i.e. their subjective well-being (SWB)? 2. Are there other policies that might raise SWB? 3. Can poorer countries afford policies to raise SWB? The answers…. © Peter Lang GmbH Internationaler Verlag der Wissenschaften Berlin 2019.