Progress and World Happiness Rate: The impact of human rights in the estimation model

Progress and World Happiness Rate: The impact of human rights in the estimation model | Research Square window.SnipcartSettings = { analytics: { enabled: false } }; (function() { var accessVector = localStorage.getItem('access_vector') || ''; window.dataLayer = window.dataLayer || []; if (accessVector) { window.dataLayer.push({ user: { profile: { profileInfo: { snid: accessVector } } } }); } })(); (function(w,d,s,l,i){w[l]=w[l]||[];w[l].push({'gtm.start':new Date().getTime(),event:'gtm.js'});var f=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0],j=d.createElement(s),dl=l!='dataLayer'?'&l='+l:'';j.async=true;j.src='https://www.googletagmanager.com/gtm.js?id='+i+dl;f.parentNode.insertBefore(j,f);})(window,document,'script','dataLayer','GTM-K279D39R'); Browse Preprints In Review Journals COVID-19 Preprints AJE Video Bytes Research Tools Research Promotion AJE Professional Editing AJE Rubriq About Preprint Platform In Review Editorial Policies Our Team Advisory Board Help Center Sign In Submit a Preprint Cite Share Download PDF Research Article Progress and World Happiness Rate: The impact of human rights in the estimation model Ludovica Pietrangelo This is a preprint; it has not been peer reviewed by a journal. https://doi.org/ 10.21203/rs.3.rs-7733858/v1 This work is licensed under a CC BY 4.0 License Status: Posted Version 1 posted You are reading this latest preprint version Abstract In the latter half of the last century, the study of national welfare has increasingly become more important for government policy, relying on GDP as a single metric of a country’s development. However, it is now recognized that traditional indicators such as GDP do not capture the entire spectrum of well-being in a population. To address this limitation, the World Happiness Report (WHR), annually released by the United Nations since 2012, aims to offer a multidimensional analysis of happiness in 150 countries, based on six explanatory variables. The purpose of this study is to critically evaluate the limits of the WHR model. Even though statistical models often require the relaxation of theoretical assumptions, here the objective is to test the robustness of the WHR regression and, where possible, explore possible improvements to maximize its accuracy and explanatory power. Initially, the problems of multicollinearity and heteroscedasticity were resolved by excluding two regressors from the initial model. This led to a reduced model with a modest improvement in the explanatory variable of the original model. In response to some of the most urgent challenges facing society today, this analysis aims to assess the influence of additional factors, which are not currently considered in the World Happiness Report (WHR), on overall happiness: ed- ucation, human rights, and the internal gap of happiness. Of these, human rights are identified as the strongest statistical predictors of happiness and enhance the fitness of the model without compromising reliability. These findings support the influence of civil liberties on well-being and suggest that including socio-political variables can provide policymakers with a more reliable tool to monitor and nurture sustainable development. Development Economics Full Text Additional Declarations The authors declare no competing interests. Cite Share Download PDF Status: Posted Version 1 posted You are reading this latest preprint version Research Square lets you share your work early, gain feedback from the community, and start making changes to your manuscript prior to peer review in a journal. As a division of Research Square Company, we’re committed to making research communication faster, fairer, and more useful. We do this by developing innovative software and high quality services for the global research community. Our growing team is made up of researchers and industry professionals working together to solve the most critical problems facing scientific publishing. Also discoverable on Platform About Our Team In Review Editorial Policies Advisory Board Help Center Resources Author Services Accessibility API Access RSS feed Manage Cookie Preferences © Research Square 2026 | ISSN 2693-5015 (online) Privacy Policy Terms of Service Do Not Sell My Personal Information {"props":{"pageProps":{"initialData":{"identity":"rs-7733858","acceptedTermsAndConditions":true,"allowDirectSubmit":true,"archivedVersions":[],"articleType":"Research Article","associatedPublications":[],"authors":[{"id":521735125,"identity":"f0cab8f1-1ae6-45a5-89c3-8b2c1d863471","order_by":0,"name":"Ludovica Pietrangelo","email":"data:image/png;base64,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","orcid":"https://orcid.org/0009-0006-7796-2453","institution":"Luiss Guido Carli University","correspondingAuthor":true,"prefix":"","firstName":"Ludovica","middleName":"","lastName":"Pietrangelo","suffix":""}],"badges":[],"createdAt":"2025-09-28 10:58:01","currentVersionCode":1,"declarations":{"humanSubjects":false,"vertebrateSubjects":false,"conflictsOfInterestStatement":false,"humanSubjectEthicalGuidelines":false,"humanSubjectConsent":false,"humanSubjectClinicalTrial":false,"humanSubjectCaseReport":false,"vertebrateSubjectEthicalGuidelines":false},"doi":"10.21203/rs.3.rs-7733858/v1","doiUrl":"https://doi.org/10.21203/rs.3.rs-7733858/v1","draftVersion":[],"editorialEvents":[],"editorialNote":"","failedWorkflow":false,"files":[{"id":92456682,"identity":"97041d1f-95a4-49f6-b4a4-5ceba88b1407","added_by":"auto","created_at":"2025-09-30 02:26:52","extension":"pdf","order_by":1,"title":"","display":"","copyAsset":false,"role":"manuscript-pdf","size":324071,"visible":true,"origin":"","legend":"","description":"","filename":"Article.pdf","url":"https://assets-eu.researchsquare.com/files/rs-7733858/v1_covered_0c72ed32-5f37-4b3c-930c-0139f221a5ae.pdf"}],"financialInterests":"The authors declare no competing interests.","formattedTitle":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eProgress and World Happiness Rate: The impact of human rights in the estimation model\u003c/strong\u003e\u003c/p\u003e","fulltext":[],"fulltextSource":"","fullText":"","funders":[],"hasAdminPriorityOnWorkflow":false,"hasManuscriptDocX":false,"hasOptedInToPreprint":true,"hasPassedJournalQc":"","hasAnyPriority":true,"hideJournal":true,"highlight":"","institution":"Luiss Guido Carli University","isAcceptedByJournal":false,"isAuthorSuppliedPdf":true,"isDeskRejected":"","isHiddenFromSearch":false,"isInQc":false,"isInWorkflow":false,"isPdf":true,"isPdfUpToDate":true,"isWithdrawnOrRetracted":false,"journal":{"display":true,"email":"[email protected]","identity":"researchsquare","isNatureJournal":false,"hasQc":true,"allowDirectSubmit":true,"externalIdentity":"","sideBox":"","snPcode":"","submissionUrl":"/submission","title":"Research Square","twitterHandle":"researchsquare","acdcEnabled":true,"dfaEnabled":false,"editorialSystem":"","reportingPortfolio":"","inReviewEnabled":false,"inReviewRevisionsEnabled":true},"keywords":"","lastPublishedDoi":"10.21203/rs.3.rs-7733858/v1","lastPublishedDoiUrl":"https://doi.org/10.21203/rs.3.rs-7733858/v1","license":{"name":"CC BY 4.0","url":"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/"},"manuscriptAbstract":"\u003cp\u003eIn the latter half of the last century, the study of national welfare has increasingly become more important for government policy, relying on GDP as a single metric of a country’s development. 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