Corruption and Happiness: Fortune or Evil?

It is commonly settled that corruption is a widespread threat to economic well-being, but there is hardly any rigorous research on how it may affect happiness. Corrupt people often fail to leave a trail of corruption, much owing to its illicit nature, irrespective of it long-term costs or in broader terms to acquire wealth for short-term happiness. As a concern, much of the studies remain anecdotal. We present here an empirical substantiation of the subject above by employing individual cross-sectional survey data for 57 countries from the latest survey wave 7 conducted by the World Value Survey (WVS) from 2017 to 2022. Structural equation modeling (SEM) is used to measure and analyze the relationship between latent variable (corruption) and observed variable (Happiness). Linear causal relationship among variables that looks for both direct and indirect effects is a more powerful technique as compare to simple regression analysis. The purpose of the present paper is to explicate SEM to exemplify their application by analyzing the prominent socio-economic determinants of happiness as suggested by strong theoretical literature. We reveal interesting causalities while exploring the nexus of corruption and happiness. In such an attempt, we also identify the impact of other controlling indicators including marriage, social involvements, and democracy, which have a significant say in the chain developed above.