IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jsusta/v14y2022i19p12056-d923514.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The Ecological Footprint of Happiness: A Case Study of a Low-Income Community in the City of São Paulo, Brazil

Author

Listed:
  • Biagio F. Giannetti

    (Post-Graduation Program on Production Engineering, Paulista University, São Paulo 04026-002, Brazil)

  • Rose Reis De Souza

    (Post-Graduation Program on Production Engineering, Paulista University, São Paulo 04026-002, Brazil)

  • Marcos J. Alves-Pinto

    (Post-Graduation Program on Production Engineering, Paulista University, São Paulo 04026-002, Brazil)

  • Cecília M. V. B. Almeida

    (Post-Graduation Program on Production Engineering, Paulista University, São Paulo 04026-002, Brazil)

  • Feni Agostinho

    (Post-Graduation Program on Production Engineering, Paulista University, São Paulo 04026-002, Brazil)

  • Luca Coscieme

    (Hot or Cool Institute, 10829 Berlin, Germany)

Abstract

An ecological footprint is an accounting tool that reports the balance between resource supply and demand to assess environmental sustainability. Among the many available indicators of social progress, happiness reflects how a person feels about their quality of life. We combined these two approaches to assess the ecological efficiency of social performance in the low-income community of Felicidade, in São Paulo, Brazil, in 2019. We assessed the ecological footprint and gross domestic happiness (GDH) through questionnaires. We found that the community has a lower environmental footprint than higher-income communities in Brazil. However, the per capita ecological footprint in the community is still above what is available per person globally. We found that the community has a high level of life satisfaction (GDH = 0.86) and that the main contributor to happiness is health, time use, psychological wellbeing, education, good governance, and community vitality. The results suggest that other contributors unrelated to income are more robust determinants of happiness. In Brazil, despite higher footprints characterizing higher-income communities, further efforts in low-income communities are needed to reduce environmental footprints, ensure dignified income, and nurture the underlying conditions for high levels of happiness and social capital.

Suggested Citation

  • Biagio F. Giannetti & Rose Reis De Souza & Marcos J. Alves-Pinto & Cecília M. V. B. Almeida & Feni Agostinho & Luca Coscieme, 2022. "The Ecological Footprint of Happiness: A Case Study of a Low-Income Community in the City of São Paulo, Brazil," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(19), pages 1-10, September.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:14:y:2022:i:19:p:12056-:d:923514
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/14/19/12056/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/14/19/12056/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Easterlin, Richard A, 2001. "Income and Happiness: Towards an Unified Theory," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 111(473), pages 465-484, July.
    2. Xiu Wu & Jinting Zhang & Daojun Zhang, 2021. "Explore Associations between Subjective Well-Being and Eco-Logical Footprints with Fixed Effects Panel Regressions," Land, MDPI, vol. 10(9), pages 1-15, September.
    3. Easterlin, Richard A., 1974. "Does Economic Growth Improve the Human Lot? Some Empirical Evidence," MPRA Paper 111773, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    4. Jinting Zhang & F. Benjamin Zhan & Xiu Wu & Daojun Zhang, 2021. "Partial Correlation Analysis of Association between Subjective Well-Being and Ecological Footprint," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(3), pages 1-14, January.
    5. Ylitalo, Kelly R. & Umstattd Meyer, M.Renée & Stone, Kahler & Doyle, Eva I. & Curtis, Ramona, 2016. "Using the Community Assessment for Public Health Emergency Response (CASPER) to assess barriers to healthy eating and active living in a low-income community," Evaluation and Program Planning, Elsevier, vol. 59(C), pages 41-46.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    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. Senik, Claudia, 2009. "Direct evidence on income comparisons and their welfare effects," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 72(1), pages 408-424, October.
    2. Yamada, Katsunori & Sato, Masayuki, 2013. "Another avenue for anatomy of income comparisons: Evidence from hypothetical choice experiments," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 89(C), pages 35-57.
    3. Hong, Yan-Zhen & Su, Yi-Ju & Chang, Hung-Hao, 2023. "Analyzing the relationship between income and life satisfaction of Forest farm households - a behavioral economics approach," Forest Policy and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 148(C).
    4. repec:spo:wpmain:info:hdl:2441/vbu6kd1s68o6r34k5bcm3iopv is not listed on IDEAS
    5. Drakopoulos, Stavros A., 2008. "The Concept Of Comparison Income: An Historical Perspective," MPRA Paper 8713, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    6. Blanchflower, David G. & Oswald, Andrew J., 2004. "Well-being over time in Britain and the USA," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 88(7-8), pages 1359-1386, July.
    7. Tsegay Gebrekidan Tekleselassie, 2017. "Subjective Wellbeing and Institutions: The Case of Rural Ethiopia," Working Papers 016, Policy Studies Institute.
    8. Drakopoulos, Stavros, 2011. "Hierarchical Needs, Income Comparisons and Happiness Levels," MPRA Paper 48343, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    9. Gabriel Leite Mota, 2022. "Unsatisfying ordinalism: The breach through which happiness (re)entered economics," Regional Science Policy & Practice, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 14(3), pages 513-528, June.
    10. Schmähl, Winfried, 2002. "Old-age security in Bhutan: From lump-sum payments towards a pension scheme," Working papers of the ZeS 06/2002, University of Bremen, Centre for Social Policy Research (ZeS).
    11. Benno Torgler & Sascha L. Schmidt & Bruno S. Frey, 2006. "The Power of Positional Concerns: A Panel Analysis," CREMA Working Paper Series 2006-19, Center for Research in Economics, Management and the Arts (CREMA).
    12. Caporale, Guglielmo Maria & Georgellis, Yannis & Tsitsianis, Nicholas & Yin, Ya Ping, 2009. "Income and happiness across Europe: Do reference values matter?," Journal of Economic Psychology, Elsevier, vol. 30(1), pages 42-51, February.
    13. Jaikumar, Saravana & Singh, Ramendra & Sarin, Ankur, 2018. "‘I show off, so I am well off’: Subjective economic well-being and conspicuous consumption in an emerging economy," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 86(C), pages 386-393.
    14. Stutzer, Alois, 2004. "The role of income aspirations in individual happiness," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 54(1), pages 89-109, May.
    15. Brand-Correa, Lina I. & Steinberger, Julia K., 2017. "A Framework for Decoupling Human Need Satisfaction From Energy Use," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 141(C), pages 43-52.
    16. Isabel Neira & Fernando Bruna & Marta Portela & Adela García-Aracil, 2018. "Individual Well-Being, Geographical Heterogeneity and Social Capital," Journal of Happiness Studies, Springer, vol. 19(4), pages 1067-1090, April.
    17. Michael Pirson, 2019. "A Humanistic Perspective for Management Theory: Protecting Dignity and Promoting Well-Being," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 159(1), pages 39-57, September.
    18. Georges Ngnouwal Eloundou & Blaise Ondoua Beyene & Marius Messoh Lonte, 2023. "In pursuit of Happiness in developing countries: does the diffusion of ICT matter?," Economics Bulletin, AccessEcon, vol. 43(4), pages 1730-1740.
    19. Hilke Brockmann, 2009. "Why Are Middle-Aged People so Depressed?: Evidence from West Germany," SOEPpapers on Multidisciplinary Panel Data Research 233, DIW Berlin, The German Socio-Economic Panel (SOEP).
    20. Kingdon, Geeta Gandhi & Knight, John, 2007. "Community, comparisons and subjective well-being in a divided society," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 64(1), pages 69-90, September.
    21. Joanne Haddad & Jad Chaaban & Ali Chalak & Hala Ghattas, 2022. "Does Income Class Affect Life Satisfaction? New Evidence from Cross-Country Microdata," Social Sciences, MDPI, vol. 11(6), pages 1-23, June.

    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:jsusta:v:14:y:2022:i:19:p:12056-:d:923514. 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.