Life Satisfaction in Latin America: A Size-of-Place Analysis

In Latin America, countries can be divided into two groups: those where people in villages and small towns are happier than people in middle sized cities, and those where they are less happy. Four possible reasons for these patterns are explored: level of economic development, social values, public social spending, and presence of indigenous population. In regressions on happiness of each explanatory factor separately, development and public social spending (especially on health, housing, and social security) are the most important. In a joint regression, public social spending is found to be the main explanation of the different happiness patterns.