title: The relationship between happiness and health: evidence from Italy.
abstract: We test the relationship between happiness and self-rated health in Italy. The analysis relies on a unique dataset collected through the administration of a questionnaire to a representative sample (n = 817) of the population of the Italian Province of Trento in March 2011. Based on probit regressions and instrumental variables estimates, we find that happiness is strongly correlated with perceived good health, after controlling for a number of relevant socio-economic phenomena. Health inequalities based on income, work status and education are relatively contained with respect to the rest of Italy. As expected, this scales down the role of social relationships.
authors.affiliation: Department of Economics and Law, Sapienza University of Rome, Italy; Laboratory for Comparative Social Research (LCSR), National Research University Higher School of Economics, Russia. Electronic address: fabio.sabatini@uniroma1.it.
authors.forename: Fabio
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Sabatini
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D005260:Female; D006240:Happiness; D006304:Health Status; D006801:Humans; D007558:Italy; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D010549:Personal Satisfaction; D012959:Socioeconomic Factors; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: Happiness; Health; Italy; Life satisfaction