Predicting wellbeing in Latin America with use of classification methods

Abstract

Individual life satisfaction has implications that go beyond one’s personal life having potential to influence social and economic indicators as well. Its significance has made it a field of study in recent decades. However, these studies are normally focused on the Western world. Very few look at other regions despite evidence pointing to cultural differences in what influences life satisfaction. This paper takes a closer look at subjective wellbeing in Latin America. This region has been found to be happier than what economic indicators alone would suggest, making it an interesting object of study. This piece employs supervised learning methods to determine whether currently known life satisfaction predictors are enough to reliably predict wellbeing. It also takes a look at relative importance of its predictors in this way adding research with the use of novel methods to the limited body of knowledge on the topic.