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The Influence of Air Pollution on Happiness and Willingness to Pay for Clean Air in the Bohai Rim Area of China

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  • Qianqian Liu

    (School of Geography, Nanjing Normal University, Nanjing 210023, China
    Jiangsu Center for Collaborative Innovation in Geographical Information Resource Development and Application, Nanjing 210023, China)

  • Guanpeng Dong

    (Key Research Institute of Yellow River Civilization and Sustainable Development, Henan University, Kaifeng 475005, China
    Collaborative Innovation Center on Yellow River Civilization Jointly Built by Henan Province and Ministry of Education, Henan University, Kaifeng 475005, China)

  • Wenzhong Zhang

    (Institute of Geographic Sciences and Natural Resources Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100101, China)

  • Jiaming Li

    (Institute of Geographic Sciences and Natural Resources Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100101, China)

Abstract

Air pollution imposes detrimental impacts on residents’ health and the general quality of life. Quantifying the influential mechanism of air pollution on residents’ happiness and the economic value brought by environmental quality improvement could provide a scientific basis for the construction of livable cities. This study estimated urban residents’ willingness to pay for air pollution abatement by modeling the spatial relationship between air quality and self-rated happiness with a Bayesian multi-level ordinal categorical response model. Using large-scale geo-referenced survey data, collected in the Bohai Rim area of China (including 43 cities), we found that a standard deviation decrease in the number of polluted days over a year was associated with about a 15 percent increase in the odds of reporting a higher degree of happiness, after controlling for a wide range of individual- and city-scale covariate effects. On average, urban residents in the Bohai Rim region were willing to pay roughly 1.42 percent of their average monthly household income for mitigating marginal reductions in air pollution, although great spatial variability was also presented. Together, we hoped that these results could provide solid empirical evidence for China’s regional environmental policies aiming to promote individuals’ well-being.

Suggested Citation

  • Qianqian Liu & Guanpeng Dong & Wenzhong Zhang & Jiaming Li, 2022. "The Influence of Air Pollution on Happiness and Willingness to Pay for Clean Air in the Bohai Rim Area of China," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(9), pages 1-13, May.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:19:y:2022:i:9:p:5534-:d:807659
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    Cited by:

    1. Sunmin Jun & Mengying Li & Juchul Jung, 2022. "Air Pollution (PM 2.5 ) Negatively Affects Urban Livability in South Korea and China," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(20), pages 1-20, October.
    2. Jie Zhu & Chuntian Lu & Anrui Song, 2023. "Air Pollution Governance and Residents’ Happiness: Evidence of Blue Sky Defense in China," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(21), pages 1-17, October.
    3. 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.

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