Impact of oil exploitation on happiness in Northern Amazon region in Ecuador

Ecuadorian people through its constitution states the importance of happiness in harmony with nature. However, its main source of income has relied on oil exploitation, extracted mainly from the northern Amazon region, for around five decades. Oil has been and is still being promoted as the engine for bringing development both for the region as well as for the whole country. The relationship between oil and development have been widely stud-ied, however its link with happiness have not largely been explored. Happiness research can be a valuable and more interesting tool to look at more appropriate measures of develop-ment than conventional economic measures. This paper investigates on the relationship between happiness and oil exploitation at local levels. To this end, two datasets and a logit model are used to determine the likelihood of people living in oil producing areas on being part of a happier group of households. It is found that households living in the two prov-inces where oil is extracted are less likely to be happy, and household residing in communi-ties near oil producing areas that have been negatively affected by oil industry are also less likely to be happy.