China's happiness quotient

 

MAY 8, 2012 Tue China's Happiness Depends on Expectations of Rising Income Despite years of wrenching economic change in China, optimism about rising incomes has staved off social unrest and put the Chinese populace's happiness level on a par with that of Croatia, says a team led by Paul Frijters of the University of Queensland in Australia. But China's happiness could drop to that of Bangladesh if income expectations were to turn sour. If individuals began to expect incomes to fall, the proportion of very happy Chinese citizens would decrease 48%, with steeper declines among rural-to-urban migrants, the researchers say. Source: Are optimistic expectations keeping the Chinese happy?