Objective Environmental Indicators and Subjective Well-Being: Are They Directly Related?

Gianni Betti, Laura Neri, Marco Lonzi and Achille Lemmi
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Laura Neri: Department of Economics and Statistics, University of Siena, 53100 Siena, Italy
Marco Lonzi: Department of Economics and Statistics, University of Siena, 53100 Siena, Italy
Achille Lemmi: ASESD Tuscan Universities Research Centre “Camilo Dagum", 56124 Pisa, Italy

Sustainability, 2020, vol. 12, issue 6, 1-12

Abstract: This paper discusses how objective environmental indicators affect the measure of a country’s well-being. The dependent variable in the analysis is subjective well-being (WB), for which the objective environmental variable we use is per capita carbon dioxide (CO 2 ) emissions. The paper refers to the relationship between subjective well-being and a set of objective variables representing the four basic types of capital to satisfy human needs and to ensure the well-being of future generations based on the ecological economic systems. Implementing different mediation models, estimated using structural equation modeling, we discover that the objective environmental variable does not directly affects the country’s subjective well-being, while, according to different models, the mediated effects are statistically significant in explaining subjective well-being. The surprising results lead us to think that the environmental risks related to CO 2 emissions might not be correctly perceived by the public.

Keywords: well-being; environmental indicators; mediation analysis; direct and indirect effect (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
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