ConclusionsThis paper adds the element of happiness into the nexusbetween trust and households’ financial and insurance decisions.The empirical research is based on IV probit models that useimplications from the psychology and economic literatures to findoptimal instruments for the treatment of the endogeneity of thehappiness and trust variables.In accordance with the previous literature, the results providestrong support for the positive independent effect of subjectivetrust on risky financial investments and insurance purchases. How-ever, the results also indicate that happier individuals are less likelyto invest in these assets. This novel finding is in line with theMood Maintenance Hypothesis, which asserts that individuals ina good mood are reluctant to gamble because they do not wantto undermine their happy feeling. Thus, these individuals are rel-atively more risk averse. Notably, the economic significance of thenegative effect of happiness on the probability of investing in riskyfinancial products and insurance outshines the respective positiveeffect of trust. Further, we show that for even moderately levels of