Happiness in the Air: How Does a Dirty Sky Affect Mental Health and Subjective Well-being?

Xin Zhang, Xiaobo Zhang and Xi Chen

No 56, GLO Discussion Paper Series from Global Labor Organization (GLO)

Abstract: Previous studies evaluating the welfare cost of air pollution have not paid much attention to its potential effect on mental health and subjective well-being (SWB). This paper attempts to fill the gap by investigating the impact of air pollution on several key dimensions, including mental health status, depressive symptoms, moment-to-moment happiness, and evaluative happiness. We match a nationwide longitudinal survey in China with local air quality and rich weather conditions according to the exact time and place of survey. By making use of variations in exposure to air pollution for the same individuals over time, we show 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. Our results shed light on air pollution as an important contributor to the Easterlin paradox that economic growth may not bring more happiness.

Keywords: mental health; depression; hedonic happiness; life satisfaction; air pollution; Easterlin paradox (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I31 Q51 Q53 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2017
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-cna, nep-env, nep-hap, nep-hea, nep-hpe and nep-tra
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (202)

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Journal Article: Happiness in the air: How does a dirty sky affect mental health and subjective well-being? (2017)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:zbw:glodps:56

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