Happiness in the Air: How Does a Dirty Sky Affect Mental Health and Subjective Well-being?
01 Sep 2017-Journal of Environmental Economics and Management (J Environ Econ Manage)-Vol. 85, pp 81-94
TL;DR: It is shown that air pollution reduces hedonic happiness and increases the rate of depressive symptoms, while life satisfaction has little to do with the immediate air quality.
About: This article is published in Journal of Environmental Economics and Management.The article was published on 2017-09-01 and is currently open access. It has received 389 citations till now. The article focuses on the topics: Happiness & Subjective well-being.
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TL;DR: The Economics of Happiness as discussed by the authors, which is based on people's reports of how their lives are going, provides a complementary yet radically different approach to studying human well-being, including positive and negative feelings (e.g., momentary experiences of happiness or stress), life evaluations, and feelings of having a life purpose.
Abstract: Welfare and well-being have traditionally been gauged by using income and employment statistics, life expectancy, and other objective measures. The Economics of Happiness, which is based on people’s reports of how their lives are going, provides a complementary yet radically different approach to studying human well-being. Typically, subjective well-being measures include positive and negative feelings (e.g., momentary experiences of happiness or stress), life evaluations (e.g., life satisfaction), and feelings of having a life purpose. Both businesses and policymakers now increasingly make decisions and craft policies based on such measures. This chapter provides an overview of the Happiness Economics approach and outlines the promises and pitfalls of subjective well-being measures.
331 citations
TL;DR: A daily, city-level happiness metric constructed from the sentiment expressed in 210 million tweets on Sina Weibo from 144 cities shows that high levels of air pollution significantly reduce Chinese urbanites’ expressed happiness on social media.
Abstract: High levels of air pollution in China may contribute to the urban population’s reported low level of happiness1–3. To test this claim, we have constructed a daily city-level expressed happiness metric based on the sentiment in the contents of 210 million geotagged tweets on the Chinese largest microblog platform Sina Weibo4–6, and studied its dynamics relative to daily local air quality index and PM2.5 concentrations (fine particulate matter with diameters equal or smaller than 2.5 μm, the most prominent air pollutant in Chinese cities). Using daily data for 144 Chinese cities in 2014, we document that, on average, a one standard deviation increase in the PM2.5 concentration (or Air Quality Index) is associated with a 0.043 (or 0.046) standard deviation decrease in the happiness index. People suffer more on weekends, holidays and days with extreme weather conditions. The expressed happiness of women and the residents of both the cleanest and dirtiest cities are more sensitive to air pollution. Social media data provides real-time feedback for China’s government about rising quality of life concerns. A daily, city-level happiness metric constructed from the sentiment expressed in 210 million tweets on Sina Weibo from 144 cities shows that high levels of air pollution significantly reduce Chinese urbanites’ expressed happiness on social media.
278 citations
Posted Content•
TL;DR: In this paper, the short run effects of ozone on respiratory related health conditions using daily boat arrivals and departures into the two major ports of Los Angeles as an instrumental variable for ozone levels were estimated.
Abstract: A pervasive problem in the literature on the health costs of pollution is that optimizing individuals may compensate for increases in pollution by reducing their exposure to protect their health This implies that estimates of the health effects of pollution may vastly understate the full welfare effects of pollution, particularly for individuals most at risk who have the greatest incentive to adopt compensatory behavior Furthermore, using ambient monitors to approximate individual exposure to pollution may induce considerable measurement error We overcome these issues by estimating the short run effects of ozone on respiratory related health conditions using daily boat arrivals and departures into the two major ports of Los Angeles as an instrumental variable for ozone levels While daily variation in boat traffic is a major contributor to local ozone pollution, time-varying pollution due to port activity is arguably a randomly determined event uncorrelated with factors related to health Instrumental variable estimates are significantly larger than OLS estimates, indicating the importance of accounting for avoidance behavior and measurement error in understanding the full welfare effects from pollution
216 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, the effect of increased air pollution on the number of road traffic accidents in the United Kingdom between 2009 and 2014 was estimated. But the results were robust to a number of specifications and across various sub-samples.
141 citations
References
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TL;DR: The CES-D scale as discussed by the authors is a short self-report scale designed to measure depressive symptomatology in the general population, which has been used in household interview surveys and in psychiatric settings.
Abstract: The CES-D scale is a short self-report scale designed to measure depressive symptomatology in the general population. The items of the scale are symptoms associated with depression which have been used in previously validated longer scales. The new scale was tested in household interview surveys and in psychiatric settings. It was found to have very high internal consistency and adequate test- retest repeatability. Validity was established by pat terns of correlations with other self-report measures, by correlations with clinical ratings of depression, and by relationships with other variables which support its construct validity. Reliability, validity, and factor structure were similar across a wide variety of demographic characteristics in the general population samples tested. The scale should be a useful tool for epidemiologic studies of de pression.
48,339 citations
01 Jan 1974
TL;DR: In this article, the authors discuss the association of income and happiness and suggest a Duesenberry-type model, involving relative status considerations as an important determinant of happiness.
Abstract: Publisher Summary This chapter discusses the association of income and happiness. The basic data consist of statements by individuals on their subjective happiness, as reported in thirty surveys from 1946 through 1970, covering nineteen countries, including eleven in Asia, Africa, and Latin America. Within countries, there is a noticeable positive association between income and happiness—in every single survey, those in the highest status group were happier, on the average, than those in the lowest status group. However, whether any such positive association exists among countries at a given time is uncertain. Certainly, the happiness differences between rich and poor countries that one might expect on the basis of the within-country differences by economic status are not borne out by the international data. Similarly, in the one national time series studied, for the United States since 1946, higher income was not systematically accompanied by greater happiness. As for why national comparisons among countries and over time show an association between income and happiness that is so much weaker than, if not inconsistent with, that shown by within-country comparisons, a Duesenberry-type model, involving relative status considerations as an important determinant of happiness, is suggested.
4,235 citations
"Happiness in the Air: How Does a Di..." refers methods in this paper
...Following the seminal work of Easterlin (1974, 1995), there has been a growing literature explaining the happiness puzzle, also known as the Easterlin paradox....
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...Similar to Easterlin (1974), we also find a noticeable positive association between absolute income and happiness across individuals within a county at a given point of time (Column (1) of Panel B in Table 2), but the association disappears when individual fixed effects are controlled for to…...
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TL;DR: In this article, the authors suggest that the material norms on which judgments of well-being are based increase in the same proportion as the actual income of the society, and that raising the incomes of all does not increase the happiness of all.
Abstract: Today, as in the past, within a country at a given time those with higher incomes are, on average, happier. However, raising the incomes of all does not increase the happiness of all. This is because the material norms on which judgments of well-being are based increase in the same proportion as the actual income of the society. These conclusions are suggested by data on reported happiness, material norms, and income collected in surveys in a number of countries over the past half century.
2,883 citations
"Happiness in the Air: How Does a Di..." refers methods in this paper
...Following the seminal work of Easterlin (1974, 1995), there has been a growing literature explaining the happiness puzzle, also known as the Easterlin paradox....
[...]
Book•
01 Aug 2001
TL;DR: It is made evident that the neuroscience of mental health-a term that encompasses studies extending from molecular events to psychological, behavioral, and societal phenomena-has emerged as one of the most exciting arenas of scientific activity and human inquiry.
Abstract: The past century has witnessed extraordinary progress in our improvement of the public health through medical sciencea nd ambitious, often innovative, approachest o health care services.P revious Surgeons General reports have saluted our gains while continuing to set ever higher benchmarks for the public health. Through much of this era of great challenge and greater achievement, however, concerns regarding mental illness and mental health too often were relegated to the rear of our national consciousness. Tragic and devastating disorders such as schizophrenia, depression and bipolar disorder, Alzheimer’s disease, the mental and behavioral disorders suffered by children, and a range of other mental disorders affect nearly one in five Americans in any year, yet continue too frequently to be spoken of in whispers and shame. Fortunately, leaders in the mental health field-fiercely dedicated advocates, scientists, government officials, and consumers-have been insistent that mental health flow in the mainstream of health. I agree and issue this report in that spirit. This report makes evident that the neuroscience of mental health-a term that encompasses studies extending from molecular events to psychological, behavioral, and societal phenomena-has emerged as one of the most exciting arenas of scientific activity and human inquiry. We recognize that the brain is the integrator of thought, emotion, behavior, and health. Indeed, one of the foremost contributions of contemporary mental health research is the extent to which it has mended the destructive split between “mental’ and “physical” health.
2,592 citations
Posted Content•
TL;DR: In this article, the authors review the evidence on relative income from the subjective well-being literature and discuss the relation (or not) between happiness and utility, and discuss some nonhappiness research (behavioral, experimental, neurological) related to income comparisons.
Abstract: The well-known Easterlin paradox points out that average happiness has remained constant over time despite sharp rises in GNP per head. At the same time, a micro literature has typically found positive correlations between individual income and individual measures of subjective well-being. This paper suggests that these two findings are consistent with the presence of relative income terms in the utility function. Income may be evaluated relative to others (social comparison) or to oneself in the past (habituation). We review the evidence on relative income from the subjective well-being literature. We also discuss the relation (or not) between happiness and utility, and discuss some nonhappiness research (behavioral, experimental, neurological) related to income comparisons. We last consider how relative income in the utility function can affect economic models of behavior in the domains of consumption, investment, economic growth, savings, taxation, labor supply, wages, and migration.
2,239 citations