Social Capital, Subjective Well-Being, and Happiness: Evidence from a Survey in Various European and Asian Countries to Address the Stiglitz Report

Abstract

The quantification of happiness is gaining attention as one of the new social indicators for measuring the degree of development, as put forward in the Stiglitz Report. Various happiness determinants, including (non-)socio-economic factors, have been proposed. Among these, we explored social capital (SC), which refers to human networks as capital. However, the Inclusive Wealth Report pointed out that this is the least developed capital in comparison to three other major types of capital measured. We used the Resource Generator to ask about quasi-resources in human networks in order to measure participants’ SC. We administered a survey in the general public in Japan and seven other countries: Denmark, Sweden, Switzerland, Finland, Bhutan, Indonesia, and Singapore. The results showed, first, that a correlation between happiness and SC could be identified in Denmark, Finland, Singapore, and Japan but less so in Sweden, Switzerland, Bhutan, and Indonesia. Second, the countries showed both identical and different characteristics in SC. Third, SC revealed common aspects that affected happiness in each country. Mental support, spending leisure time with others, and one’s career were common determinants of SC that contributed to happiness in most of the countries, though some exceptions were found.