La Dolce Vita: Hedonic Estimates of Quality of Life in Italian Cities

Abstract

Colombo E., Michelangeli A. and Stanca L. La dolce vita: hedonic estimates of quality of life in Italian cities, Regional Studies. This paper investigates quality of life in Italian cities using the hedonic approach. It analyses micro-level data for housing and labour markets to estimate compensating differentials for local amenities within four domains: weather, environment, services and society. Large compensating differentials in housing markets are found, whereas the effects on wages are relatively small. Quality of life varies substantially across space and is generally better in large and medium-sized cities of the Centre–North. Services and social conditions are strongly related to overall quality of life. It is also found that, across cities, quality of life is positively and significantly related to subjective well-being.

Colombo E., Michelangeli A. and Stanca L. 甜蜜的生活：意大利城市生活质量的享乐(特征)评价，区域研究。本文运用享乐(特征)方法，探讨意大利的城市生活质量。本文分析住宅与劳动市场的微观层级资料，评价地方舒适性在气候、环境、服务与社会四大面向中的补偿性差异。我们在住宅市场中发现大幅的补偿性差异，对于工资的影响则相对薄弱。不同地方的生活质量差异甚大，普遍来说，中、北部的中、大型城市具有较好的生活质量。服务与社会条件强烈关乎总体生活质量。本研究亦发现，在各城市中，生活质量明确且显著地与主观幸福有关。

Colombo E., Michelangeli A. et Stanca L. La vie en rose: des estimations hédonistiques de la qualité de la vie en Italie, Regional Studies. À partir de l'approche hédonistique, cet article cherche à examiner la qualité de la vie des grandes villes italiennes. On analyse des données micro-économiques sur les marchés du logement et du travail afin d'estimer les différentiels compensateurs des équipements collectifs pour quatre domaines: à savoir, le temps, l'environnement, les services et la société. Il s'avère d'importants différentiels compensateurs pour ce qui est des marchés du logement, alors que l'effet sur les salaires est relativement modéré. La qualité de la vie varie énormément à travers l'espace et s'annonce mieux en règle générale dans les grandes villes et les villes moyennes situées dans la partie Centre-Nord du pays. Les services et les conditions sociales sont étroitement liés à la qualité de la vie dans son ensemble. Il s'avère aussi que la qualité de la vie est positivement et fortement corrélée au bien-être subjectif à travers les grandes villes.

Colombo E., Michelangeli A. und Stanca L. La dolce vita: hedonische Schätzungen der Lebensqualität in italienischen Städten, Regional Studies. In diesem Beitrag untersuchen wir mit Hilfe des hedonischen Ansatzes die Lebensqualität in italienischen Städten. Wir analysieren Daten auf Mikroebene für die Wohnungs- und Arbeitsmärkte, um die kompensierenden Differentiale für lokale Merkmale innerhalb von vier Bereichen zu schätzen: Wetter, Umwelt, Dienstleistungen und Gesellschaft. Auf dem Wohnungsmarkt finden wir große kompensierende Differentiale, während die Auswirkungen auf die Gehälter relativ gering ausfallen. Die Lebensqualität schwankt innerhalb des Raums erheblich und fällt in den großen und mittelgroßen Städten in der Landesmitte und im Norden generell besser aus. Dienstleistungen und soziale Bedingungen stehen in einem engen Zusammenhang mit der generellen Lebensqualität. Ebenso stellen wir für sämtliche Städte fest, dass die Lebensqualität positiv und signifikant mit dem subjektiven Wohlbefinden verknüpft ist.

Colombo E., Michelangeli A. y Stanca L. La dolce vita: cálculos hedónicos de la calidad de vida en las ciudades italianas, Regional Studies. Mediante un enfoque hedónico, en este artículo investigamos la calidad de vida en las ciudades italianas. Analizamos datos a nivel micro para los mercados laboral y de la vivienda con el fin de calcular los diferenciales compensatorios en las prestaciones locales en cuatro sectores: clima, medio ambiente, sociedad y servicios. Observamos que en los mercados de la vivienda existen importantes diferenciales compensatorios, mientras que los efectos en los salarios son relativamente pequeños. La calidad de vida varía considerablemente en el espacio y, en general, es mejor en las ciudades de tamaño grande y medio del centro-norte. En general, los servicios y las condiciones sociales están estrechamente relacionados con la calidad de vida general. También comprobamos que en todas las ciudades, la calidad de vida tiene un vínculo positivo y significativo con el bienestar subjetivo.

• Quality of life
• Hedonic prices
• Housing markets
• Well-being

• 生活质量
• 享乐(特征)价格
• 住宅市场
• 幸福

• Qualité de la vie
• Prix hédonistiques
• Marchés du logement
• Bien-être

• Lebensqualität
• Hedonische Preise
• Wohnungsmärkte
• Wohlbefinden

• Calidad de vida
• Precios hedónicos
• Mercados de la vivienda
• Bienestar

JEL classifications::

• C4
• D5
• H4
• J3
• J6
• Q2
• R2

Acknowledgements

The authors gratefully acknowledge the Agenzia del Territorio (Osservatorio del Mercato Immobiliare) for housing market data; the Fondazione Rodolfo De Benedetti for labour market data; and the Bank of Italy for subjective well-being data. Financial support by the Italian Ministry of University and Research is also gratefully acknowledged. The authors thank Luciano Canova for his contribution to this project; and participants at the 2010 meetings of the American Real Estate and Urban Economics Association (AREUEA); the International Society for Quality of Life Studies (ISQOLS); and the Italian Association of Regional Sciences (AISRE) for helpful comments.

Notes

1. For earlier reviews of alternative approaches to the measurement of QoL, see also Luger (1996), Diener and Suh (1997), and Gyourko et al. (1999).

2. Maddison and Bigano (2003) estimated the marginal willingness to pay for climate variables in Italian cities. Schifini d'Andrea (1998) relied on socio-economic indicators to assess QoL in Italy in a comparative perspective. Cicerchia (1996) proposed a set of objective and subjective indicators for the measurement of QoL in urban areas. Nuvolati (2003) applies the social indicators approach to analyse the evolution of QoL in the 103 Italian provinces from 1989 to 2001.

3. Note that equation (1) assumes inelastic demand for housing. This assumption is supported by the empirical evidence (for instance, Hanushek and Quigley, 1980), although recent studies for the United States estimate that the after-tax price elasticity of housing demand is about –0.5, and the income elasticity about 0.25 (Sinai, 2008).

4. This conversion is based on the average number of hours worked in a part-time job that generally ranges between four and six (about two-thirds of the daily number of hours worked in a full-time job).

5. As suggested by Rotemberg and Saloner (2000), higher city density results in a labour market pooling where workers face many prospective employers, thus obtaining stronger bargaining power. More generally, Glaeser (1999) argued that urban density increases the rate of interaction between people, who can thus learn and accumulate human capital faster. On the negative side, Benabou (1993) argued that social interactions in dense areas could lead to social and occupational segregation. Glaeser (1998) emphasized that people living in more dense cities are less likely to trust others (urban anonymity) and this may result in lower social capital.

6. The coefficient of variation is 0.29 and 0.008 for housing and non-housing price differentials, respectively.

7. The authors considered the use of a quadratic specification for the three weather indicators, as by Rappaport (2007). The explanatory power of the models is virtually unchanged. Adjusted R² is 0.72, as opposed to 0.71, for the housing price equation and unchanged at 0.60 for the wage equation.

8. Similar results are obtained by Blomquist et al. (1988) and Gyourko and Tracy (1991) for US urban areas and, more recently, by Buettner and Ebertz (2009) for German counties.

9. Note that the wage component of the implicit price in column (2) is obtained as (see equation 5). This explains the sign reversal with respect to the coefficient estimates reported in Table 2, column 2. For more details on the calculation of the full implicit prices, see the fourth section.