Could pension system make us happier?

Figures & data

Figure 1. Public pension.

Figure 2. The areas by the government budget constraint.

Figure 3. Comparison of public pension and private savings.

Table 1. Data sources

Indicators	Database	Sources
Satisfaction with life (Happiness)	World Database of Happiness	http://worlddatabaseofhappiness.eur.nl/
Life expectancy	World Database of Happiness	http://worlddatabaseofhappiness.eur.nl/
Per capita GDP	Penn World Table	https://pwt.sas.upenn.edu/
Pension	Bloom et al. (2007)	Table 1, Social security systems: retirement and pension provisions, pp. 105–108

Figure 4. Income, happiness, and life expectancy.

Table 2. Coefficients of correlation

Variables	GDP per capita	Happiness	Life expectancy	Pension
GDP per capita	1.000	0.674	0.717	0.436
Happiness	0.674	1.000	0.788	0.390
Life expectancy	0.717	0.788	1.000	0.527
Pension	0.436	0.390	0.527	1.000

Figure 5. Happiness, life expectancy, and pension system.

Table 3. Estimation results

	Equation (35)	Equation (36)	Equation (37)	Equation (38)	Equation (39)	Equation (40)
Parameters	Power regression model
${\beta }_0$	48.499	1.644	-2.63	0.169	-2.719	0.189
t value	27.25	5.389	-1.667	0.833	-1.737	0.914
p value	0	0	0.101	0.408	0.088	0.365
${\beta }_1$	0.334	0.169	2.946	0.047	4.634	0.055
t value	45.69	26	3.048	3.048	3.05	2.597
p value	0	0	0.003	0.003	0.003	0.012
${\beta }_2$	-	-	3.342	-0.214	0.696	-0.039
t value	-	-	1.879	-0.934	0.856	-0.375
p value	-	-	0.065	0.354	0.396	0.709
${\beta }_3$	-	-	-	-	1.832	0.038
t value	-	-	-	-	1.485	1.66
p value	-	-	-	-	0.143	0.102
Parameters	Nonparametric regression model
${\beta }_0$	-	-	-2.467	0.238	-2.817	0.248
t value	-	-	-1.591	1.491	-1.791	1.528
p value	-	-	0.117	0.141	0.079	0.132
${\beta }_1$	-	-	2.314	0.024	4.174	0.029
t value	-	-	1.864	1.864	2.097	1.694
p value	-	-	0.067	0.067	0.04	0.096
${\beta }_2$	-	-	3.135	-0.303	0.608	-0.061
t value	-	-	1.788	-1.675	0.761	-0.729
p value	-	-	0.079	0.099	0.45	0.469
${\beta }_3$	-	-	-	-	1.142	0.018
t value	-	-	-	-	0.723	0.865
p value	-	-	-	-	0.473	0.391

Notes: The upper, middle, and lower show the estimated values, t values and p values, respectively. The figures highlighted represent the cases that the result is statistically significant at the 0.10 level.

Table 4. Summary

	the effect of pension on life expectancy	the effect of pension on happiness	the relationship between life expectancy and happiness
			without pension	with pension
Power regression model	Positive	Insignificant	Positive	Insignificant
Nonparametric regression model	Positive	Negative	Positive	Insignificant

Table A1. Data

	Country	Pension	Happiness	Life expectancy	GDP per capita
1	Argentina	1	7.3	74.8	9687
2	Australia	1	7.7	80.9	37863
3	Austria	1	7.6	79.4	36075
4	Belgium	1	7.3	78.8	33656
5	Bolivia	1	6.3	64.7	3331
6	Brazil	1	7.5	71.7	7297
7	Burkina Faso	0	4.4	51.4	831
8	Canada	1	7.8	80.3	35836
9	Chile	1	6.7	78.3	10783
10	Colombia	0	7.7	72.3	6514
11	Denmark	1	8.3	77.9	34283
12	Dominican Republic	1	7.5	71.5	8215
13	Ecuador	1	6.4	74.7	5374
14	Egypt	1	5.7	70.7	4059
15	Finland	1	7.9	78.9	31840
16	France	1	6.6	80.2	30952
17	Germany	1	7.1	79.1	32214
18	Ghana	1	5.2	59.1	1659
19	Greece	1	6.4	78.9	24764
20	Hong Kong	1	6.6	81.9	32048
21	India	0	5.5	63.7	2466
22	Indonesia	0	6.3	69.7	3192
23	Ireland	1	7.6	78.4	38301
24	Israel	1	7.0	80.3	23533
25	Italy	1	6.7	80.3	29384
26	Jamaica	1	6.7	72.2	8930
27	Japan	1	6.5	82.3	30858
28	Kenya	1	3.7	52.1	1141
29	Korea, South	1	6.0	77.9	22254
30	Madagascar	1	3.7	58.4	725
31	Malaysia	1	6.5	73.7	10366
32	Mali	1	4.7	53.1	862
33	Mexico	1	7.9	75.6	11611
34	Morocco	0	5.4	70.4	3006
35	Netherlands	1	7.6	79.2	36687
36	New Zealand	1	7.5	79.8	26436
37	Nigeria	0	5.7	46.5	1527
38	Norway	1	7.9	79.8	48534
39	Panama	0	7.8	75.1	8095
40	Peru	1	6.2	70.7	5642
41	Philippines	1	5.9	71.0	2753
42	Portugal	1	5.7	77.7	20032
43	Senegal	1	4.5	62.3	1374
44	Singapore	1	6.9	79.4	42103
45	South Africa	1	5.8	50.8	6697
46	Spain	1	7.2	80.5	27852
47	Sri Lanka	1	5.1	71.6	3186
48	Sweden	1	7.8	80.5	33235
49	Switzerland	1	8.0	81.3	37295
50	Taiwan	0	6.2	76.4	26107
51	Tanzania	0	2.8	51.0	913
52	Tunisia	1	5.9	73.5	5692
53	Turkey	1	5.6	71.4	9084
54	Uganda	0	4.8	49.7	959
55	United Kingdom	1	7.2	79.0	33166
56	United States	1	7.4	77.9	41327
57	Uruguay	1	6.7	75.9	8927
58	Venezuela	1	7.5	73.2	8876
59	Viet Nam	0	6.1	73.7	2014
60	Zambia	0	5.0	40.5	1156
61	Zimbabwe	0	3.0	40.9	337
	Average	0.79	6.4	71.2	16622
	Min	0	2.8	40.5	337
	Max	1	8.3	82.3	48534

Bloom, D. E., Canning, D., Mansfield, R. K., & Moore, M. (2007). Demographic change, social security systems, and savings. Journal of Monetary Economics, 54(1), 92–114.

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