IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jsusta/v15y2023i17p13219-d1232148.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Social Quality and Residents’ Subjective Well-Being in China—An Empirical Analysis Based on CSS2021 Data

Author

Listed:
  • Xiaojuan Ouyang

    (School of Public Administration, Central South University, Changsha 410083, China
    School of Social Development and Management, Hunan Women’s University, Changsha 410081, China)

  • Zequan Pan

    (School of Public Administration, Central South University, Changsha 410083, China)

Abstract

Happiness is the eternal pursuit of human beings, and subjective well-being is an essential indicator for evaluating happiness. Research on subjective well-being mainly focuses on material, economic, and psychological factors, and there is insufficient research on the impact of social factors on subjective well-being. Focusing on the influence of social factors on subjective well-being can help us better understand the “Easterlin Paradox”. Based on the theoretical model of social quality, this paper analyzes the influence of the current Chinese social quality on Chinese people’s subjective well-being using the data from the China Social Survey 2021 (CSS2021). It is found that the higher the social quality, the stronger the people’s subjective well-being, and this conclusion is stable for different groups. By dimension, socio-economic security, social cohesion, and social inclusion significantly affect people’s subjective well-being, but social empowerment does not significantly affect subjective well-being. This paper provides new evidence to explore the impact of social quality on people’s well-being.

Suggested Citation

  • Xiaojuan Ouyang & Zequan Pan, 2023. "Social Quality and Residents’ Subjective Well-Being in China—An Empirical Analysis Based on CSS2021 Data," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(17), pages 1-13, September.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:15:y:2023:i:17:p:13219-:d:1232148
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/15/17/13219/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/15/17/13219/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Andrew E. Clark & Paul Frijters & Michael A. Shields, 2008. "Relative Income, Happiness, and Utility: An Explanation for the Easterlin Paradox and Other Puzzles," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 46(1), pages 95-144, March.
    2. Robin Samuel & Andreas Hadjar, 2016. "How Welfare-State Regimes Shape Subjective Well-Being Across Europe," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 129(2), pages 565-587, November.
    3. Alesina, Alberto & Di Tella, Rafael & MacCulloch, Robert, 2004. "Inequality and happiness: are Europeans and Americans different?," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 88(9-10), pages 2009-2042, August.
    4. Di Tella, Rafael & MacCulloch, Robert, 2008. "Gross national happiness as an answer to the Easterlin Paradox?," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 86(1), pages 22-42, April.
    5. Yang Li & Dario Spini & Dimitrios Lampropoulos, 2023. "Beyond Geography: Social Quality Environments and Health," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 166(2), pages 365-379, April.
    6. Rohde, Nicholas & Tang, K.K. & Osberg, Lars & Rao, Prasada, 2016. "The effect of economic insecurity on mental health: Recent evidence from Australian panel data," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 151(C), pages 250-258.
    7. Ed Diener & Ed Sandvik & Larry Seidlitz & Marissa Diener, 1993. "The relationship between income and subjective well-being: Relative or absolute?," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 28(3), pages 195-223, March.
    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. BARTOLINI Stefano & SARRACINO Francesco, 2011. "Happy for How Long? How Social Capital and GDP relate to Happiness over Time," LISER Working Paper Series 2011-60, Luxembourg Institute of Socio-Economic Research (LISER).
    2. Jin, Olivia S. & Wunnava, Phanindra V., 2020. "Feeling Richer and Happier? Self-Perceived Economic Welfare and Life Satisfaction: Evidence of 'Easterlin Paradox' from Russian Longitudinal Data," GLO Discussion Paper Series 625, Global Labor Organization (GLO).
    3. 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.
    4. Clark, Andrew E. & D'Ambrosio, Conchita, 2014. "Attitudes to Income Inequality: Experimental and Survey Evidence," IZA Discussion Papers 8136, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    5. Stefano Bartolini & Ennio Bilancini & Maurizio Pugno, 2013. "Did the Decline in Social Connections Depress Americans’ Happiness?," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 110(3), pages 1033-1059, February.
    6. Nguyen, Ha & Duncan, Alan, 2015. "Macroeconomic fluctuations in home countries and immigrants’ well-being: New evidence from Down Under," MPRA Paper 69593, University Library of Munich, Germany, revised Feb 2016.
    7. Stefano Bartolini & Ennio Bilancini & Francesco Sarracino, 2013. "Predicting the Trend of Well-Being in Germany: How Much Do Comparisons, Adaptation and Sociability Matter?," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 114(2), pages 169-191, November.
    8. Sarracino, Francesco, 2013. "Determinants of subjective well-being in high and low income countries: Do happiness equations differ across countries?," Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics (formerly The Journal of Socio-Economics), Elsevier, vol. 42(C), pages 51-66.
    9. Grosfeld, Irena & Senik, Claudia, 2008. "The Emerging Aversion to Inequality. Evidence from Poland 1992-2005," CEPREMAP Working Papers (Docweb) 0805, CEPREMAP.
    10. Stefan Gruber & Gregor Sand, 2022. "Does Migration Pay Off in Later Life? Income and Subjective Well-Being of Older Migrants in Europe," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 160(2), pages 969-988, April.
    11. Irena Grosfeld & Claudia Senik, 2009. "The emerging aversion to inequality - Evidence from long subjective data," Working Papers halshs-00586788, HAL.
    12. AMENDOLA, Adalgiso & DELL'ANNO, Roberto & PARISI, Lavinia, 2015. "Happiness, Inequality and Relative Concerns in European Countries," CELPE Discussion Papers 136, CELPE - CEnter for Labor and Political Economics, University of Salerno, Italy.
    13. Irena Grosfeld & Claudia Senik, 2010. "The emerging aversion to inequality," The Economics of Transition, The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, vol. 18(1), pages 1-26, January.
    14. Naoki Akaeda, 2020. "Contextual Social Trust and Well-Being Inequality: From the Perspectives of Education and Income," Journal of Happiness Studies, Springer, vol. 21(8), pages 2957-2979, December.
    15. Ozan Eksi & Neslihan Kaya, 2017. "Life Satisfaction and Keeping Up with Other Countries," Journal of Happiness Studies, Springer, vol. 18(1), pages 199-228, February.
    16. Silvia Emili & Federica Galli, 2022. "Self-perceptions and perceptions of peers: their role in understanding expenditure behaviours," Quality & Quantity: International Journal of Methodology, Springer, vol. 56(6), pages 4573-4597, December.
    17. Blanchflower, David G & Oswald, Andrew, 2011. "International Happiness," CAGE Online Working Paper Series 39, Competitive Advantage in the Global Economy (CAGE).
    18. Cordero, José Manuel & Salinas-Jiménez, Javier & Salinas-Jiménez, M Mar, 2017. "Exploring factors affecting the level of happiness across countries: A conditional robust nonparametric frontier analysis," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 256(2), pages 663-672.
    19. Ana I. Moro Egido & Maria Navarro & Ángeles Sánchez-Domínguez, 2017. "Changes in Subjective Well-Being Over Time in Germnay," ThE Papers 17/05, Department of Economic Theory and Economic History of the University of Granada..
    20. Byela Tibesigwa & Martine Visser & Brennan Hodkinson, 2016. "Effects of Objective and Subjective Income Comparisons on Subjective Wellbeing," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 128(1), pages 361-389, August.

    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:15:y:2023:i:17:p:13219-:d:1232148. 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.