Valuing the impact on wellbeing of urban amenities in Beijing

ABSTRACT

Survey data for a sample of respondents in Beijing are used to evaluate the determinants of subjective wellbeing. The data are rich and allow the impact on wellbeing of amenities associated with housing to be evaluated alongside the impact of household income, thus enabling us to attach a value to characteristics such as neighbourhood tranquility, air quality, and access to infrastructure. The evidence suggests that the value of such amenities is high, and this has clear implications for urban design.

KEYWORDS:

• Wellbeing
• housing
• urban design

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

1. Jiang, Ming, and Sato (2012) argue that the relationship is complex; between group inequality lowers happiness, but, controlling for this, an increase in the Gini coefficient raises happiness, presumably because, within groups, an increase in inequality signals the possibility of future income gains.

2. This paper is also notable for including, amongst the regressors, measures of the ‘big five’ psychological traits; extraversion, agreeableness, conscientiousness and emotional stability are all found to have a significantly positive impact on wellbeing; openness does not have a significant effect.

3. The data and documentation are available at http://reshare.ukdataservice.ac.uk/853640/, accessed 16 June 2020.

4. This is based on a 5-point Likert scale, ranging from ‘very happy’ to ‘not happy at all’ in response to the question: ‘Are you happy with your quality of life?’

5. The approach taken here differs, therefore, from that of, for example, Bertram and Rehdanz (2015) who use an objective measure of the provision of amenities. Arguably (while perceptions are influenced by reality) it is the perception of amenity provision that directly influences people’s satisfaction.

6. See the National Bureau of Statistics of China (http://www.stats.gov.cn/tjsj/ndsj/2019/html/E0309.jpg) and note also the observations of Wen (2018).

7. https://www.kaggle.com/ruiqurm/lianjia, accessed 16 June 2020. See also Zhao, Huang, and Sui (2019)

8. Indeed the average price in Fengtai is likely pushed up by sales of these newer properties; the area retains also some much older and less appealing accommodation which is less likely to come to the market.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Geraint Johnes

Geraint Johnes is Professor of Economics at Lancaster University.