Happiness of Hong Kong youth from 2000 to 2014: Empirical evidence on the differential impact of socioeconomic conditions on youth versus other age groups

This paper aims to explain why Hong Kong youth have become unhappier than older people in recent years. We test in this connection six hypotheses, using random effects ordinal logistic regressions with a combined macro-micro dataset from official statistics and a longitudinal opinion survey project from 2000 to 2014. The results show that the decline in the happiness level in recent years is more significant for Hong Kong youth than for older people. We also find evidence of age heterogeneity in the impacts of both macroeconomic conditions and the housing price on happiness. GDP per capita has a weaker positive effect on youth's happiness than it does on older people. The positive correlation between housing price and happiness is valid for older people only. Rapid economic growth and the rise in the price of housing have made older people happier than youth since the early 2010s. Copyright © 2017 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.