Paper Title
An Effect of Performing Arts on Happiness in Western Japan: Quantile Regression Analysis

Abstract
The purpose of this paper is to reveal the gender difference in the effect of participation in the performing arts on happiness. The participation in the performing arts includes experiencing and appreciating them throughout life. In order to investigate the relationship, the author conducted a unique internet survey in 2015 which contain questions about not only present involvement in arts activities but also past ones. The sample size is 180, 65 for female and 115 for male. As for the method, quantile regression method is applied because the effect of arts differs by happiness quantiles as the previous studies indicate. This paper adds the perspective of different attitude toward arts by gender, so that the 11-scale happiness measurement is regressed by participation in the arts and other control variables for female and male respectively. As a result, for lower quantile people, only negative effects of arts related activities are significant. The past experiences show a positive effect for higher quantile people for both gender. It seems that happiness for female are more affected by the arts compared with that for male. Judging from the result that arts related activities have more positive impact on those who are already happy, arts might play the role to expand happiness difference. Index terms - Performing arts, Happiness, Quantile regression, Internet survey, Japan