How happy are the volunteers and volunteers in the municipality of La Paz? Application to the economy of happiness

Abstract

In recent years, the so-called Economy of Happiness has been establishing empirical relationships between the different levels of subjective well-being that people express and various socioeconomic variables. In this framework, one of the most relevant empirical findings of the literature is the positive correlation between the level of happiness and the convictions that a person manifests in a social activity. According to this line of research, people who manifest a high level of personal convictions, be they religious, political or cultural, among others, are more likely to achieve a high level of happiness when they perform a tangible job, such as being a volunteering or a pastoral activity. Based on the results obtained from a statistically significant survey, carried out on people doing volunteer work in the municipality of La Paz, the present study seeks to answer the following research questions: are volunteers happy in the municipality of La Paz? Peace? And what factors affect the happiness level of volunteering? To answer this question, the authors use econometric estimates based on an Ordered Probit model. The main results of the study show that this group of people register high levels of happiness, and that variables such as beliefs of faith, gender, age, education, leadership and tangibility of work affect them.