On the Use of Subjective Well-Being Data for Environmental Valuation

By Susana Ferreira, Mirko Moro. 2010

237 citations recorded by the source corpus.

This paper explores the potential of using subjective well-being (SWB) data to value environmental attributes. A theoretical framework compares this method, also known as the life-satisfaction approach, with the standard hedonic pricing approach, identifying their similarities and differences. As a corollary, we show how SWB data can be used to test for the equilibrium condition implicit in the hedonic approach (i.e., equality of utility across locations). Results for Ireland show that the equilibrium condition required by the hedonic pricing approach in Irish markets does not hold. They also show that air quality, in the baseline specification, and warmer climate, across all the specifications, have a significant positive impact on SWB. Their associated monetary estimates, however, seem too large.

Subfields: Economics and Econometrics, General Decision Sciences, Social Psychology

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/1532bd360009da4c59c90ae2f87b5f1f117681de

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Citations in the corpus

Valuing scenic amenity using life satisfaction data (2011, background): “…other non-market environmental goods valued via the life satisfaction approach include airport noise (cf. van Praag and Baarsma, 2005), climate (cf. Ferreira and Moro, 2010; Frijters and van Praag, 1998; Rehdanz and Maddison, 2005), species diversity (cf. Rehdanz, 2007) and floods (cf. Luechinger…”
Happiness Economics from 35,000 Feet (2012, unknown): “For example, how do age or education or political, religious or environmental views mediate the impacts of other variables and life events? Models here include Finkelstein et al. (2008), who examine the impact of health status on the marginal utility of income, and Clark et al.”
Does the presence of wind turbines have negative externalities for people in their surroundings? Evidence from well-being data (2017, background): “…applicable to the fixed-effects (within) estimator, and the bias resulting from this measurement error has been found to be negligible (see, for example, Ferrer-i-Carbonell and Frijters (2004) for panel data, and Brereton et al. (2008) and Ferreira and Moro (2010) for repeated cross-section data).”
Public Greenspace and Life Satisfaction in Urban Australia (2014, methodology): “…other non-market environmental goods valued via the life satisfaction approach include airport noise (cf. van Praag and Baarsma, 2005), climate (cf. Ferreira and Moro, 2010; Frijters and van Praag, 1998; Maddison and Rehdanz, 2011), scenic amenity (cf. Ambrey and Fleming, 2011), floods (cf.…”
Environmental Quality and Life Satisfaction: Subjective Versus Objective Measures of Air Quality (2015, result): “Furthermore, we incorporate the objective measures of air quality regarded as an exogenous variable, as in previous studies in the LS equation and found results consistent with previous research (Ferreira and Moro 2010; Luechinger 2009, 2010; Menz 2011; Welsch 2006), in which LS is marginally signif”
Valuation Techniques for Social Cost-Benefit Analysis: (2011, background): “Ferreira and Moro (2009) (air quality and climate), Luechinger (2009) (air quality), Dolan and Metcalfe (2008) (urban regeneration) and Oswald and Powdthavee (2008) (death of family members) use an instrument for income when deriving income compensations/valuations.”
A review of air pollution impact on subjective well-being: Survey versus visual psychophysics (2018, unknown): “Ferreira and Moro (2010) valuate PM10 with regional data in Ireland.”
Subjective Well-Being: Measuring Happiness, Suffering, and Other Dimensions of Experience (2014, background): “• Evaluating trade-offs between inflation and unemployment ( Gandelman and Hernández-Murillo, 2009); • Environmental policies (Ferreira and Moro, 2009); • Full valuations of cash transfers, earned income tax credit, food stamps, back-to-work programs, and other social policies (Blattman et al.”
Estimating the cost of air pollution in South East Queensland: An application of the life satisfaction non-market valuation approach (2013, background): “Ferreira and Moro (2010) suggest that the relationship depends on whether the hedonic markets are in equilibrium or disequilibrium, as well as on the econometric specification of the life satisfaction function.”
The French Unhappiness Puzzle: The Cultural Dimension of Happiness (2014, background): “If this were the case, country fixed-effects would not attract statistically significant coefficients in estimates of subjective wellbeing (Ferreira and Moro, 2010; Luechinger 2009, Oswald and Wu, 2010).”