Education, Income, and Happiness: Evidence From China

Abstract

Happiness is the continuous joy that people experience when they are satisfied with their lives long term, and is the ultimate goal pursued by all citizens. In this study, we investigate the relationship between education, income, and happiness in the migrant population in China. Using 1,31,186 individuals in the 2012 China Migrants Dynamic Survey (CMDS) as research samples, the estimated results of ordinal logistic regression show that education, including secondary education and higher education, has a significant and direct impact on individual happiness, and that the impact of education on happiness can also be mediated by income as an intermediary mechanism. In addition, factors such as gender, flow distance, flow time, employment status, type of housing, number of children, degree of preference for the city, and degree of discrimination by locals have obvious effects on happiness. This work provides important insights for countries seeking to implement an active education policy in order to increase economic income and thus achieve the development goal of universal happiness among their citizens.

Influence of college education on happiness: A quasi-experimental study based on higher education expansion in China

“…It is observed that compared with those who did not receive college education, the higher education expansion increased the happiness of those who did by 0.165 points on average. This result is highly consistent with the results of most prior studies from China ( Bian and Xiao, 2014 ; Hu, 2015 ; Yang et al, 2022 ). However, the popularization of college education may lead to a decrease in the marginal happiness return of college education, which is in line with the results of other studies ( Huang, 2013 ; Hu, 2015 ).…”

“…There are abundant literatures on the happiness effect of college education. Most researchers believe that college education is positively associated with happiness, and individuals received college education usually have a higher level of happiness than those who did not ( Liu et al, 2012 ; Hu, 2015 ; Hu and Gao, 2019 ; FitzRoy and Nolan, 2020 ; Yang et al, 2022 ). However, with the expansion of higher education and increase of skills diffusion, the marginal happiness effect of college education may gradually decrease ( Araki, 2022 ).…”

“…However, with the expansion of higher education and increase of skills diffusion, the marginal happiness effect of college education may gradually decrease ( Araki, 2022 ). The positive impact of college education on happiness is mainly due to its contribution to the improvement of people’s material living conditions, especially the increase of wage earnings ( Hu and Gao, 2019 ; FitzRoy and Nolan, 2020 ; Yang et al, 2022 ). In addition, college education can also increase one’s cognitive ability (e.g., sense of control) and enrich one’s spiritual life, so as to increase happiness ( Dalgard et al, 2007 ).…”

“…First, college education can bring better personal social status, so as to improve happiness. A common finding is that, college education can help people increase income and occupational status, which finally helps increase happiness returns ( Hu and Gao, 2019 ; FitzRoy and Nolan, 2020 ; Yang et al, 2022 ). In China, personal social status consists of not only income, occupational status and perceived social status, but also political status.…”

“…Among the social determinants of happiness, access to education, especially access to college education, is regarded as one of the most important influencing factors. Numerous studies have documented that college education can bring a higher level of happiness ( Cunado and Gracia, 2012 ; Hu, 2015 ; Nikolaev and Rusakov, 2016 ; Nikolaev, 2018 ; Hu and Gao, 2019 ; Yang et al, 2022 ), a few studies have also found a null or negative association between college education and happiness ( Selim, 2008 ). However, few studies examine the endogeneity problem when they discuss the influence of college education on happiness, and a causal and robust link between them needs to be built.…”