Predictive factors of happiness and policy countermeasure in post COVID-19 pandemic era

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic has severely affected numerous individuals’ lives and inevitably lowered their happiness levels. In the process of recovering from the effects of the pandemic, a series of measures must be taken to enhance people’s happiness as soon as possible. The research used multiple linear regression and random forest to analyze the data from World Happiness Report 2023 in order to identify some effective predictive factors of happiness, and made recommendations to policymakers. The result of this study shows social support and GDP are the main indexes policymakers should put effort into improving. Governments can enhance the level of social support not only from the classical perspective but also from improving health care. Reformations of the health care system are necessary if current contingency measures are not sufficient for such severe situations as COVID-19. Policies on economics are continuously beneficial to a population’s overall well-being and thus are important for policymakers to work on.