In a groundbreaking study published on April 10, 2024, in the open-access journal PLOS ONE, Feng Huang from the Chinese Academy of Sciences and his team present a fresh perspective. They suggest that economic prosperity in a country can indeed enhance the well-being of its citizens, challenging long-held beliefs.

Philosophers have debated the complex relationship between financial wealth and happiness for centuries. Notably, Aristotle and Solon were sceptical about wealth’s joy-bringing capabilities. Conversely, the Easterlin Paradox posits that a nation’s economic strength can positively affect the health and happiness of its people. However, there has been little evidence to back this assertion in China, where there has been significant financial growth and swift industrialization recently.

To explore this further, Huang and his colleagues examined how national economic growth affected subjective well-being—a measure of personal happiness—across 31 mainland China provinces from 2010 to 2020. The researchers used two vital financial indicators from the National Bureau of Statistics of China: the per capita gross domestic product (GDP) and the Gini coefficient, which measures income inequality. To assess the subjective well-being of Chinese citizens, they analyzed content from 644,243 users of Weibo, a popular microblogging platform, using natural language processing techniques to determine the sentiment of each post.

The findings reveal that from 2010 to 2020, subjective well-being generally improved as GDP per capita increased—specifically, a 0.38-unit increase in well-being for every 46.70% rise in GDP per capita. However, higher income inequality correlated with lower subjective well-being, with a decrease of 1.47 units for every 0.09 unit increase in the Gini coefficient. Furthermore, the study found that once the Gini coefficient surpasses 0.609, the positive correlation between the economy and mental health dissipates.

The majority of the study participants were from the more prosperous regions of Eastern China and were all literate social media users, which could limit the broader applicability of the findings. The researchers suggest that future studies could focus on wealth disparities within smaller geographic areas, such as cities or communities, rather than entire provinces. Despite these limitations, the study champions a balanced approach to economic policy, advocating for strategies that address income disparities and promote sustainable growth.

In conclusion, the study underscores the delicate balance between economic growth and income equality in enhancing well-being in China. It highlights the complex relationship between achieving prosperity and maintaining fair wealth distribution for genuine happiness.

More information: Feng Huang et al, Does wealth equate to happiness? an 11-year panel data analysis exploring socio-economic indicators and social media metrics, PLoS ONE. DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0301206

Journal information: PLoS ONE Provided by PLOS