Subjective well-being in China’s changing society

William A. V. Clark (), Daichun Yi () and Youqin Huang
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William A. V. Clark: Department of Geography, University of California, Los Angeles, CA 90095
Daichun Yi: Research Institute of Economics and Management, Southwestern University of Finance and Economics, Chengdu 610074, China
Youqin Huang: Department of Geography and Planning, State University of New York, Albany, NY 12222

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 2019, vol. 116, issue 34, 16799-16804

Abstract: There is now recognition that a population’s overall level of well-being is defined not just by income and wealth. Where we live and who we interact with are likely to be equally important in our overall levels of satisfaction with our lives. This thinking has stimulated studies of subjective well-being, or happiness, at both national and local scales. These studies suggest that where you live does matter, although it is health and family status that have the most direct effects on well-being. In this study, we use a detailed dataset on well-being from the China Household Finance Survey to reexamine well-being across China, where profound socioeconomic changes are taking place. The study controls for self-reported health and examines subjective well-being across extensive and varied Chinese urban and rural environments. We find that the earlier pessimism about China’s well-being, which emphasized declining happiness, may be misplaced. We make two contributions: first, we show a rising level of subjective well-being, and second, we show that there is a narrowing gap in well-being across different social indicators. Methodologically, we bring in the perspectives of both social capital and geographic context.

Keywords: China; subjective well-being; life satisfaction; places; social capital (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2019
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