Happy people work differently. They're more productive, more creative, and willing to take greater risks. And new research suggest that happiness might influence（1）_____firms work, too.
Companies located in places with happier people invest more, according to a recent research paper.（2）_____, firms in happy places spend more on R&D (research and development). That's because happiness is linked to the kind of longer-term thinking（3）_____for making investments for the future.
The researchers wanted to know if the（4）_____and inclination for risk-taking that come with happiness would（5）_____the way companies invested. So they compared U.S. cities' average happiness（6）_____by Gallup polling with the investment activity of publicly traded firms in those areas.
（7）_____enough, firms' investment and R&D intensity were correlated with the happiness of the area in which they were（8）_____.But is it really happiness that's linked to investment, or could something else about happier cities（9）_____why firms there spend more on R&D? To find out, the researchers controlled for various（10）_____that might make firms more likely to invest – like size, industry, and sales – and for indicators that a place was（11）_____to live in, like growth in wages or population. The link between happiness and investment generally（12）_____even after accounting for these things.
The correlation between happiness and investment was particularly strong for younger firms, which the authors（13）_____to "less codified decision making process" and the possible presence of "younger and less（14）_____managers who are more likely to be influenced by sentiment." The relationship was（15）_____stronger in places where happiness was spread more（16）_____.Firms seem to invest more in places where most people are relatively happy, rather than in places with happiness inequality.
（17）_____ this doesn't prove that happiness causes firms to invest more or to take a longer-term view, the authors believe it at least（18）_____at that possibility. It's not hard to imagine that local culture and sentiment would help（19）_____how executives think about the future. "It surely seems plausible that happy people would be more forward-thinking and creative and（20）_____R&D more than the average," said one researcher.
