The Comparative of Social Cohesion and Happiness in Taiwan and Hong Kong

• Main Authors: Chang, Chia-yi, 張嘉怡
• Other Authors: Yang, Tzu-Han
• Format: Others
• Language: zh-TW
• Published: 2014
• Online Access: http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/279c2b

碩士 === 國立臺北大學 === 財政學系 === 102 === Gross National Happiness (GNH) was proposed in 1972 by Bhutan's fourth Dragon King, Jigme Singye Wangchuck, who suggested that promoting people’s happiness should be government’s political priority. After that, Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) and United Nations (UN) also devoted their attentions to the research of happiness and its’ indexes. Then, Taiwan has first announced GNH in August, 2013. Since happiness is a subjective emotion, the factors that might influence happiness can be numerous. There has been a great deal of emphasis in social cohesion. In the IMD World Competitiveness Yearbook of International Institute for Management Development (IMD), social cohesion has been considered one of the important factors influencing national competitiveness. There are also various researchers proposed that social cohesion affects subjective happiness. Therefore, this paper continues exploring the social cohesion effect on subjective happiness. We defined social cohesion from three perspectives: social relations, social connections and the care of public affairs. Taiwan and Hong Kong have experienced several similar changes for the past decades. From the external perspective, their relationships between China have never been closer, from the internal perspective, they both have plenty experiences in the social activities launched by the republic. Therefore, it might be worthwhile to explore whether or not the happiness receptions and factors might be the same between Taiwan and Hong Kong. Our research adopted the Social Image Surveys of Taiwan and Hong Kong in 2010, using ordered probit model to analyze. The results showed that social cohesion contributed to the differences of happiness reception of Taiwan and HK; people in Taiwan focus on social connection (security, fairness, and achievement), while people in HK emphasis on social relationship (trust and interpersonal relationship). Since that Taiwan and HK have different focus on social development, therefore, governments of Taiwan and HK should adopt different and suitable approach to elevate GHN in order to build social cohesion.