Date of Award
8-1-2024
Degree Name
Master of Science
Department
Economics
First Advisor
Becsi, Zsolt
Abstract
In contrary to the popular orthodox models in Classical and Neoclassical economics, the inclusion of emotions into the concept of utility by Jeremy Bentham in 1769, has highlighted the importance of emotions in economic decision making. Considering this theoretical framework, our study aims to explore the influence of happiness as an emotion on an economic decision making such as- marriage. To explore this question, we analyze a substantial secondary dataset encompassing over 53,380 individuals from nearly 198 countries, collected between 2013 and 2019 using logistic regression techniques. To extend our empirical analysis, we also provide a simple static Bayesian game analysis in the context of happiness and marriage. Our results show that higher levels of happiness increase the likelihood of marriage which is an important aspect of policy implications targeted towards emotional well-being and improving the overall stability and welfare of family units.
Access
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