Partial Correlation Analysis of Association between Subjective Well-Being and Ecological Footprint

Jinting Zhang, F. Benjamin Zhan, Xiu Wu and Daojun Zhang
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Jinting Zhang: School of Resource and Environmental Science, Wuhan University, Wuhan 430079, China
F. Benjamin Zhan: Department of Geography, Texas State University, San Marcos, TX 78666, USA
Xiu Wu: Department of Geography, Texas State University, San Marcos, TX 78666, USA
Daojun Zhang: College of Economics and Management, Northwest A&F University, Xianyang 712100, China

Sustainability, 2021, vol. 13, issue 3, 1-14

Abstract: A spatial-temporal panel dataset was collected from 101 countries during 2006–2016. Using partial correlation (PC) and ordinary correlation (OR) analyses, this research examines the relationship between ecological footprint (EF) and subjective well-being (SWB) to measure environmental impacts on people’s happiness. Gross domestic product (GDP), urbanization rate (UR), literacy rate (LR), youth life expectancy (YLE), wage and salaried workers (WSW), political stability (PS), voice accountability (VA) are regarded as control variables. Total bio-capacity (TBC), ecological crop-land footprints (ECL), ecological grazing-land footprint (EGL), and ecological built-up land footprint (EBL) have significant positive influences on SWB, but ecological fish-land (EFL) has significant negative influences on SWB. Ecological carbon footprint (ECF) is significantly negatively related to SWB in developed countries. An increase in the amount of EF factors is associated with a country’s degree of development. Political social–economic impacts on SWB disguised environmental contribution on SWB, especially CBF impacts on SWB. The use of PC in examining the association between SWB and EF helps bridge a knowledge gap and facilitate a better understanding of happiness.

Keywords: partial correlation; subjective well-being; ecological footprint; sustainability (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (3)

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