Gelir ve mutluluk arasındaki ilişkinin incelenmesi

Mutluluk daha once de belirtildigi gibi oncelikle psikologlarin calisma alani olmustur. Psikologlar yillardir yaptiklari refah anketleri ile mutluluk uzerinde calisirlarken ekonomistler bu alanda kendilerini psikologlardan cok daha sonra gostermislerdir. Son zamanlarda yapilan psikolojik calismalar ekonomi ile ilgili alanlarda da yapilmaya baslanmistir. Sinirli rasyonelligin ortaya cikisi ve davranissal iktisadin kurulusu yeni calisma alanlarinin acilmasina neden olmustur. Psikoloji ve iktisat arasindaki iliskinin incelenmesine yol acan en onemli calismalardan biri Easterlin'in 1974'te yapmis oldugu gelir ve mutluluk iliskisini inceleyen calismadir. Bu calismada mutluluk ve yasam doyumu bagimli degiskenler olarak ele alinmis ve farkli modeller kurularak, ekonomik ve cesitli sosyo demografik bagimsiz degiskenlerin bagimli degisken uzerindeki etkileri analiz edilmistir. Bu degiskenler gelir basta olmak uzere cinsiyet, yas, cocuk sayisi, medeni hal, dini egilim, gelir memnuniyeti, aylik gelir miktari, kamu hizmetlerinden duyulan memnuniyet, calisma ortamindan duyulan memnuniyet, issizlik, kisinin kurum veya bireylere yaptigi maddi yardim miktaridir. Aylik gelir ve ortalama gelir arasindaki fark ve aylik gelir ve kisiyi mutlu edecek minimum gelir miktari arasindaki fark da bu degiskenlerin yasam doyumu ve mutluluk uzerindeki etkisini gozlemlemek icin bagimsiz degiskenler olarak modellerde kullanilmistir. Yapilan analizlerde gelir seviyesinin kisilerin mutlulugu uzerinde etkili olmadigi fakat gelir memnuniyetinin mutluluk seviyesi uzerinde etkili oldugu sonucuna ulasilmistir. Diger taraftan hem gelir miktarinin hem de gelir memnuniyetinin yasam doyumu ile pozitif bir iliskiye sahip oldugu gozlemlenmistir. Kisinin bir baskasina yaptigi yardimlar da yine hem yasam doyumunu hem de mutluluk seviyesini pozitif yonde etkilemektedir.AbstractHappiness happens to be a primary field of study for psychologists. While the psychologists have been studying on happiness through the welfare surveys that they've conducted for years the economists have asserted themselves on this area after a long time. Recent psychological researches are being done by the fields related with economy as well. The occurrence of bounded rationality and the formation of behavioral finance caused to open new study fields. Easterline’s scientific study in 1974 is one of the most significant studies leading to research the relations between income and happiness. In this study happiness and life satisfaction were dealt as dependent variables and effects of economic and socio demographic variables were analyzed by setting different models. The variables are as follows; income being in the first place, sexuality, age, number of children, marital status, religious orientation, income satisfaction, amount of monthly income, satisfaction with public services, satisfaction with working environment, unemployment and amount of financial aid the individual done for people or institutions. The gap between personal income and average income and the gap between personal income and minimum income to be happy also used as an independent variables in models to understand how these variable effect life satisfaction and happiness. It has been concluded that income level has no effect on the happiness of the people while income satisfaction has an effect on the happiness level of them. On the other hand, it has been observed that both amount of income and income satisfaction have a positive relationship with life satisfaction. Also the aids done by the person have positive effects on both life satisfaction and happiness level.