The Effects of Sports on Happiness and the Willingness to Pay of Different People Groups

Abstract

Using a nationwide representative sample from the China Family Panel Studies 2010 and employing an instrumental variable method, I estimate the effect of sports participation on subjective happiness of the Chinese residents. The paper intends to make a contribution by studying separately the effect of sports participation for the economically active and inactive populations. Estimation results reflect that doing sports has a positive impact on happiness which is significant for both groups. Moreover, the impact is greater for the active population if sports are done during working days rather than during rest days, whereas the impact varies slightly for the inactive population whenever sports are done. Policy implications could be that doing sports during working days is worth recommending for the economically active population, since it increases happiness to a greater extent.