IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jijerp/v16y2019i7p1129-d218136.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

PM 2.5 Concentrations and Subjective Well-Being: Longitudinal Evidence from Aggregated Panel Data from Chinese Provinces

Author

Listed:
  • Pan Zhang

    (School of International and Public Affairs, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai 200030, China
    China Institute for Urban Governance, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai 200030, China)

  • Zhiguo Wang

    (School of Engineering, The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, Hong Kong 999077, China
    Business School, The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, Hong Kong 999077, China)

Abstract

Although haze pollution with PM 2.5 as the chief pollutant has become a critical threat worldwide, little research has examined the effects of PM 2.5 concentrations on subjective well-being. Based on a longitudinal aggregated panel dataset from Chinese provinces, this study investigates the effects of PM 2.5 concentrations on levels of happiness and the inequality of happiness. The results showed that high ground-level PM 2.5 concentrations decreased the average level of happiness and high PM 2.5 concentrations had stronger negative effects on the happiness of persons with high income than those with low income. In addition, PM 2.5 concentrations were also significantly negatively related to inequality of happiness in Chinese provinces. Further empirical tests showed that the negative effects of PM 2.5 concentrations on the inequality of happiness could be explained by the stronger influence of PM 2.5 concentrations on the subjective well-being of individuals with a higher initial level of happiness than those with a lower initial level of happiness. This confirms that PM 2.5 pollution can do harm to subjective well-being and reduce variations in the subjective well-being of individuals. The policy implications of controlling haze pollution and improving well-being are discussed.

Suggested Citation

  • Pan Zhang & Zhiguo Wang, 2019. "PM 2.5 Concentrations and Subjective Well-Being: Longitudinal Evidence from Aggregated Panel Data from Chinese Provinces," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 16(7), pages 1-13, March.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:16:y:2019:i:7:p:1129-:d:218136
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/16/7/1129/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/16/7/1129/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Ambrey, Christopher L. & Fleming, Christopher M. & Chan, Andrew Yiu-Chung, 2014. "Estimating the cost of air pollution in South East Queensland: An application of the life satisfaction non-market valuation approach," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 97(C), pages 172-181.
    2. Frank Goetzke & Tilmann Rave, 2015. "Regional Air Quality and Happiness in Germany," International Regional Science Review, , vol. 38(4), pages 437-451, October.
    3. Welsch, Heinz, 2007. "Environmental welfare analysis: A life satisfaction approach," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 62(3-4), pages 544-551, May.
    4. Susana Ferreira & Mirko Moro, 2010. "On the Use of Subjective Well-Being Data for Environmental Valuation," Environmental & Resource Economics, Springer;European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 46(3), pages 249-273, July.
    5. Robert J. MacCulloch & Rafael Di Tella & Andrew J. Oswald, 2001. "Preferences over Inflation and Unemployment: Evidence from Surveys of Happiness," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 91(1), pages 335-341, March.
    6. Long, Xianling & Ji, Xi, 2019. "Economic Growth Quality, Environmental Sustainability, and Social Welfare in China - Provincial Assessment Based on Genuine Progress Indicator (GPI)," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 159(C), pages 157-176.
    7. Simon Luechinger, 2009. "Valuing Air Quality Using the Life Satisfaction Approach," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 119(536), pages 482-515, March.
    8. Zhang, Xin & Zhang, Xiaobo & Chen, Xi, 2017. "Valuing Air Quality Using Happiness Data: The Case of China," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 137(C), pages 29-36.
    9. Heinz Welsch & Jan Kühling, 2009. "Using Happiness Data For Environmental Valuation: Issues And Applications," Journal of Economic Surveys, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 23(2), pages 385-406, April.
    10. Jan Ott, 2005. "Level and Inequality of Happiness in Nations: Does Greater Happiness of a Greater Number Imply Greater Inequality in Happiness?," Journal of Happiness Studies, Springer, vol. 6(4), pages 397-420, December.
    11. Helliwell, John F. & Huang, Haifang, 2008. "How's Your Government? International Evidence Linking Good Government and Well-Being," British Journal of Political Science, Cambridge University Press, vol. 38(4), pages 595-619, October.
    12. Li, Zhengtao & Folmer, Henk & Xue, Jianhong, 2014. "To what extent does air pollution affect happiness? The case of the Jinchuan mining area, China," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 99(C), pages 88-99.
    13. Levinson, Arik, 2012. "Valuing public goods using happiness data: The case of air quality," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 96(9-10), pages 869-880.
    14. Pan Zhang & Jiannan Wu, 2018. "Performance-Based or Politic-Related Decomposition of Environmental Targets: A Multilevel Analysis in China," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(10), pages 1-16, September.
    15. MacKerron, George & Mourato, Susana, 2009. "Life satisfaction and air quality in London," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 68(5), pages 1441-1453, March.
    16. J. Ott, 2011. "Government and Happiness in 130 Nations: Good Governance Fosters Higher Level and More Equality of Happiness," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 102(1), pages 3-22, May.
    17. Heinz Welsch, 2002. "Preferences over Prosperity and Pollution: Environmental Valuation based on Happiness Surveys," Kyklos, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 55(4), pages 473-494, November.
    18. Juncal Cuñado & Fernando Gracia, 2013. "Environment and Happiness: New Evidence for Spain," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 112(3), pages 549-567, July.
    19. Jan Ott, 2010. "Greater Happiness for a Greater Number: Some Non-controversial Options for Governments," Journal of Happiness Studies, Springer, vol. 11(5), pages 631-647, October.
    20. Ferrer-i-Carbonell, Ada & Gowdy, John M., 2007. "Environmental degradation and happiness," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 60(3), pages 509-516, January.
    21. Welsch, Heinz, 2006. "Environment and happiness: Valuation of air pollution using life satisfaction data," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 58(4), pages 801-813, July.
    22. Laffan, Kate, 2018. "Every breath you take, every move you make: Visits to the outdoors and physical activity help to explain the relationship between air pollution and subjective wellbeing," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 147(C), pages 96-113.
    23. Ruut Veenhoven, 2005. "Inequality Of Happiness in Nations," Journal of Happiness Studies, Springer, vol. 6(4), pages 351-355, December.
    24. Luechinger, Simon, 2010. "Life satisfaction and transboundary air pollution," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 107(1), pages 4-6, April.
    25. Zhang, Xin & Zhang, Xiaobo & Chen, Xi, 2017. "Happiness in the air: How does a dirty sky affect mental health and subjective well-being?," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 85(C), pages 81-94.
    26. Rehdanz, Katrin & Maddison, David, 2008. "Local environmental quality and life-satisfaction in Germany," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 64(4), pages 787-797, February.
    27. Ruoyu Wang & Desheng Xue & Ye Liu & Penghua Liu & Hongsheng Chen, 2018. "The Relationship between Air Pollution and Depression in China: Is Neighbourhood Social Capital Protective?," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 15(6), pages 1-13, June.
    28. Smyth, Russell & Mishra, Vinod & Qian, Xiaolei, 2008. "The Environment and Well-Being in Urban China," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 68(1-2), pages 547-555, December.
    29. Dolan, Paul & Peasgood, Tessa & White, Mathew, 2008. "Do we really know what makes us happy A review of the economic literature on the factors associated with subjective well-being," Journal of Economic Psychology, Elsevier, vol. 29(1), pages 94-122, February.
    30. Donghwan Kim, 2018. "Cross-National Pattern of Happiness: Do Higher Education and Less Urbanization Degrade Happiness?," Applied Research in Quality of Life, Springer;International Society for Quality-of-Life Studies, vol. 13(1), pages 21-35, March.
    31. Wim Kalmijn & Ruut Veenhoven, 2005. "Measuring Inequality of Happiness in Nations: In Search for Proper Statistics," Journal of Happiness Studies, Springer, vol. 6(4), pages 357-396, December.
    32. Menz, Tobias, 2011. "Do people habituate to air pollution? Evidence from international life satisfaction data," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 71(C), pages 211-219.
    33. Ben Zhe Wang & Zhiming Cheng, 2017. "Environmental Perceptions, Happiness and Pro-environmental Actions in China," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 132(1), pages 357-375, May.
    34. Welsch, Heinz, 2009. "Implications of happiness research for environmental economics," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 68(11), pages 2735-2742, September.
    35. Jiawen Huang, 2019. "Income Inequality, Distributive Justice Beliefs, and Happiness in China: Evidence from a Nationwide Survey," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 142(1), pages 83-105, February.
    36. repec:bla:kyklos:v:55:y:2002:i:4:p:473-94 is not listed on IDEAS
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Huan Wang & Zhenyu Chen & Pan Zhang, 2022. "Spatial Autocorrelation and Temporal Convergence of PM 2.5 Concentrations in Chinese Cities," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(21), pages 1-11, October.
    2. Xuan Tian & Cheng Zhang & Bing Xu, 2022. "The Impact of Air Pollution on Residents’ Happiness: A Study on the Moderating Effect Based on Pollution Sensitivity," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(12), pages 1-20, June.
    3. Jingmei Li & Shaofei Yu & Zhihua Xu, 2023. "Does environmental pollution weaken the positive effect of government public expenditure on residents’ subjective well-being? A case study in China," Energy & Environment, , vol. 34(4), pages 927-945, June.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. García-Mainar, Inmaculada & Montuenga, Víctor M. & Navarro-Paniagua, María, 2015. "Workplace environmental conditions and life satisfaction in Spain," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 119(C), pages 136-146.
    2. Ferreira, Susana & Akay, Alpaslan & Brereton, Finbarr & Cuñado, Juncal & Martinsson, Peter & Moro, Mirko & Ningal, Tine F., 2013. "Life satisfaction and air quality in Europe," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 88(C), pages 1-10.
    3. Yuan, Liang & Shin, Kongjoo & Managi, Shunsuke, 2018. "Subjective Well-being and Environmental Quality: The Impact of Air Pollution and Green Coverage in China," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 153(C), pages 124-138.
    4. Tsurumi, Tetsuya & Managi, Shunsuke, 2020. "Health-related and non-health-related effects of PM2.5 on life satisfaction: Evidence from India, China and Japan," Economic Analysis and Policy, Elsevier, vol. 67(C), pages 114-123.
    5. Welsch, Heinz & Ferreira, Susana, 2014. "Environment, Well-Being, and Experienced Preference," International Review of Environmental and Resource Economics, now publishers, vol. 7(3-4), pages 205-239, December.
    6. Sanduijav, Chimedregzen & Ferreira, Susana & Filipski, Mateusz & Hashida, Yukiko, 2021. "Air pollution and happiness: Evidence from the coldest capital in the world," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 187(C).
    7. Xingmin Shi & Xueping Li & Xieyang Chen & Luping Zhang, 2022. "Objective air quality index versus subjective perception: which has a greater impact on life satisfaction?," Environment, Development and Sustainability: A Multidisciplinary Approach to the Theory and Practice of Sustainable Development, Springer, vol. 24(5), pages 6860-6877, May.
    8. Eleftherios Giovanis, 2019. "Worthy to lose some money for better air quality: applications of Bayesian networks on the causal effect of income and air pollution on life satisfaction in Switzerland," Empirical Economics, Springer, vol. 57(5), pages 1579-1611, November.
    9. Yenniel Mendoza & Roger Loyola & Alonso Aguilar & Roberto Escalante, 2019. "Valuation of Air Quality in Chile: The Life Satisfaction Approach," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 145(1), pages 367-387, August.
    10. Arik Levinson, 2020. "Happiness and air pollution," Chapters, in: David Maddison & Katrin Rehdanz & Heinz Welsch (ed.), Handbook on Wellbeing, Happiness and the Environment, chapter 9, pages 164-182, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    11. Ambrey, Christopher L. & Chan, Andrew Yiu-Chung & Fleming, Christopher M., 2013. "Estimating the cost of air pollution in South East Queensland: An application of the life satisfaction non-market valuation approach," 2013 Conference (57th), February 5-8, 2013, Sydney, Australia 152133, Australian Agricultural and Resource Economics Society.
    12. Han, Ahram & Ten, Gi Khan & Wang, Shun, 2023. "Gray skies and blue moms: The effect of air pollution on parental life satisfaction," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 163(C).
    13. Tetsuya Tsurumi & Shunsuke Managi, 2017. "Monetary Valuations of Life Conditions in a Consistent Framework: The Life Satisfaction Approach," Journal of Happiness Studies, Springer, vol. 18(5), pages 1275-1303, October.
    14. Xuan Tian & Cheng Zhang & Bing Xu, 2022. "The Impact of Air Pollution on Residents’ Happiness: A Study on the Moderating Effect Based on Pollution Sensitivity," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(12), pages 1-20, June.
    15. Sun, Chuanwang & Yi, Xiangyu & Ma, Tiemeng & Cai, Weiyi & Wang, Wei, 2022. "Evaluating the optimal air pollution reduction rate: Evidence from the transmission mechanism of air pollution effects on public subjective well-being," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 161(C).
    16. Arik Levinson, "undated". "Happiness and Air Pollution," Working Papers gueconwpa~20-23-10, Georgetown University, Department of Economics.
    17. Bertram, Christine & Rehdanz, Katrin, 2015. "The role of urban green space for human well-being," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 120(C), pages 139-152.
    18. Zerrahn, Alexander & Krekel, Christian, 2015. "Sowing the Wind and Reaping the Whirlwind? The Effect of Wind Turbines on Residential Well-Being," VfS Annual Conference 2015 (Muenster): Economic Development - Theory and Policy 112956, Verein für Socialpolitik / German Economic Association.
    19. Juncal Cuñado & Fernando Gracia, 2013. "Environment and Happiness: New Evidence for Spain," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 112(3), pages 549-567, July.
    20. Tiziana Laureti, 2014. "Life satisfaction and environmental conditions in Italy: a pseudo-panel approach," Discussion Papers 2014/192, Dipartimento di Economia e Management (DEM), University of Pisa, Pisa, Italy.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:16:y:2019:i:7:p:1129-:d:218136. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.